BENGALURU: The BDA is now working on securing loans from government lending institutions to manage the mammoth land acquistion cost of the Rs 27,000-crore Bengaluru Business Corridor (Peripheral Ring Road) project. It has narrowed down on four of them and preliminary talks have begun, said sources.
A whopping Rs 21,000 crore of the project, proposed 19 years ago, is expected to go towards land acquisition costs alone. Three rounds of tendering by the BDA in the past have not helped. The 73.01-km project runs from Tumakuru Road (NH-48) and passes via Doddaballapur Road, Ballari Road, Old Madras Road, Whitefield Road, and ends at Hosur Road (NH-44).
“We are looking at Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO), REC Limited, LIC Housing Finance Limited or the Karnataka Government Insurance Department to offer us a loan to meet the project cost. BDA would pay off the compensation amount to the landowners. With the construction set to cost only Rs 6,000 crore, there will be many bidders when we put out a tender for civil works,” a source told TNIE.
The BDA was looking at applying for loan to cover the entire project cost. “Lending agencies would give us 70-80% of the project cost and this can be used to acquire land,” he said.
“The state government will have to take a final call on it. We are proposing all available options to get the project started at the earliest,” he added.
There will be a moratorium of 2-3 years for such loans. “We can just pay the interest during the period or only a portion of the principal amount and then start repaying the loan later. This can be done after the concessionaire builds the road, starts collecting toll and shares a portion of the revenue with us,” the source said.
The state too can repay the loans when it earns increased revenue from the numerous charges collected by it.