BDA speeds up land acquisition for layout

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is planning to speed up the land acquisition process for Nada Prabhu Kempegowda Layout. The authority aims to solve the complexities involved in delaying the land acquisition process and ensuring that the layout is formed within seven years of issuing the preliminary notification.BDA Commissioner Bharath Lal Meena said, “We have initiated the land acquisition process and are confident of completing it within another six months. We are not facing any resistance as the compensation was mutually agreed by the land owners and the BDA. Therefore, we are planning to start the layout work immediately after acquiring the land.”The layout is all set to add one more firsts to its credit if the BDA takes possession of the land within six months as planned. Normally, the BDA takes more than a year to take possession of the land by paying the compensation after initiating the process of taking possession, which normally starts after issuing the final notification. Though the BDA had issued final notification in 2010,  it had not initiated the process to take possession of the land as the land owners had opposed acquisition.  For the first time, the BDA held discussions with the farmers to fix compensation before acquiring the land and agreed to give Rs 80 lakh to 1 crore as compensation for every acre of land, which is the highest ever compensation paid by a government agency to acquire land.  Also, for the first time, the BDA has offered an option of taking 40 per cent of the developed land as compensation for the land acquired. If the State Government approves the BDA’s proposals, this will be the first layout to have high rise buildings constructed by the BDA. The Authority will allot flats instead of sites and develop an integrated township, which is first-of-its-kind.The  Bangalore Development Authority is acquiring around 4,043 acres of land in 12 villages -Seegehalli, Kannahalli, Kodigehalli and Manganahalli in Bangalore North Taluk and Kommaghatta, Bheemanakuppe, Ramasagara, Sulikere, Kenchapura, Ramasandra, Komaghatta-Krishnasagara and Challaghatta in Bangalore South Taluk at an estimated cost of Rs 3,600 crore. It had originally planned  60,000 sites in the layout.

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