Bengaluru city, army agree to swap land

Infrastructure projects requiring defence land include roads, flyovers, elevated corridors and Metro Rail network

In a quid pro quo, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday agreed to transfer 85 hectares of defence land in Bengaluru to the city’s civic body for 10 infrastructure projects, stuck due to space constraints, an official said.

“The Karnataka government has, in turn, agreed to transfer its lands of equal value [Rs3.22 billion or Dh172 million] and size to the defence ministry in lieu of defence lands in 31 locations,” a joint declaration here by Sitharaman and Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kuamaraswamy said.

The infrastructure projects requiring defence land include road widening works, flyovers, elevated corridors and the second phase of the Metro Rail network across the city. “The city’s explosive growth over the last two decades has out-paced the development of commensurate infrastructure, resulting in chock-o-bloc vehicular traffic, congestion, pollution and woeful civic amenities,” the statement said.

In public interest

Though Sitharaman is originally from neighbouring Tamil Nadu, she is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka. “The city’s fast growth has led to urgent need to upgrade its basic infrastructure, including roads, flyovers, bridges, under-passes and elevated roads to avert traffic jams and ease congestion,” the declaration. Sitharaman also directed the defence officials to hand over the lands to the city civic body at the earliest so that construction and development of the projects are not delayed. The defence ministry agreed to swap its land in public interest as they were required for 10 infrastructure projects.