Official push for PRR project despite BDA’s legal quandary

Even as the BDA awaits a public hearing on the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, the government has swung back into action by issuing a fresh land acquisition notification.

A legal dispute is on the horizon over the delay in acquiring 1,810.18 acres of land in 67 villages, which the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) notified 15 years ago, in 2007.

Now, some of the landowners have decided to challenge this notification by citing Section 27 of the Bangalore Development Authority Act, 1976, which sets a deadline of five years to complete the project or at least the acquisition part.

Also Read: PRR project: BDA not in sync with farmers over compensation structure

Officials, who hoped to cut the cost of the land acquisition from Rs 18,000 crore to about Rs 7,000 crore by sidestepping the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, are in a fix.

Along with the Rs 5,000 crore cost of civil construction, officials had estimated that the project can be completed at Rs 12,000 crore, to be funded by the contractor emerging successful. Tenders for the project were invited in April without clarity on the total cost.

“The Supreme Court order said provisions of the 2013 Act will not apply for acquisitions under the BDA Act. If the government goes ahead with the proposal to compensate farmers under the BDA Act, then the notification itself will be void as the deadline is long over. Section 27 of the BDA Act clearly states that the scheme will lapse after five years and the land acquisition notification will be inoperative,” a source said.

At April end, the BDA issued preliminary notifications to acquire 78 acres and 15 guntas for the “missing links” and another 71 acres and 12 guntas for the four-clover leaf interchanges at Tumakuru Road, Ballari Road, Old Madras Road, and Hosur Road. This comes at a time when the BDA has failed to complete the acquisition process that began in 2006.

A BDA official, however, said the government will take a call on the compensation mechanism.

“We are at a crucial juncture in the project implementation. We had an expression of interest from eight parties during the pre-bidding stage. Compensating landowners under the BDA Act will certainly reduce the cost. The other legal matters have to be decided by the government,” the official said.

Meanwhile, sources said information on the environment impact assessment (EIA) of the additional land has been added to the EIA report submitted to the Karnataka State Pollution control Board (KSPCB). “We have also paid the necessary fee to the KSPCB and are waiting for a date for public hearing,” a source said.