BDA invites tenders for BusinessCorridor’s Rs 3,348 crore 1st package

Bengaluru: BDA has invited tenders for the long-delayed Peripheral Ring Road project, now rebranded as the Bengaluru Business Corridor (BBC). However, the tenders are only for the first package of BBC, which involves a 23km stretch between Tumkur Road and Airport Road, intersecting Doddaballapur Road. It is set to cost Rs 3,348 crore with a three-year completion period fixed by BDA.The land acquisition for the 73km corridor has been the main hurdle for the project to take off. A minimum of 80% of the total land has to be acquired in order to call for tenders. Going ahead with separate packages has made it easier for officials to bypass this hurdle, as about 83% of the land in the first package has now been acquired. According to officials, this has the largest extent of govt land among the three packages.Jagadeesh KH, deputy commissioner (additional land acquisition) at BDA, said over 20% of 576 acres required for Package-1 is govt land, including Central govt, State govt and forest land. "There are litigations, but since the project is included in the Revised Master Plan (RMP), the land has to be used for the road. There are around 900 landowners in this stretch, with most of them opting for cash compensation and 35:65 ratio of developed commercial sites along the corridor," he said.BBC chairman LK Atheeq said the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) has already sanctioned a line of credit of Rs 27,000 crore for the project. "The detailed project report will be published before April 6. As the last date for receiving tenders is May 4, we will be able to issue work orders in about two and a half months from now," he said.Atheeq also said the project has undergone several changes, like the addition of two clover-leaf junctions. "Apart from the one at Madavara, the package will have two more clover-leaf interchanges at Doddaballapur Road and Ballari Road (airport road). We have increased the length of the elevated stretch at Jarakbande Kaval and planned to have service roads on both sides instead of just one as per the earlier plan," he added.Meanwhile, PRR Farmers and Landowners Association president B Srinivasa termed the tender invitation by BDA a contempt of court. "There are around 800 cases related to PRR pending in the high court. PRR was included in RMP as essential infrastructure. But in its current form, it is a commercial project rebranded as Bengaluru Business Corridor. The main objective of the project is dead, and the project itself has lapsed," he said.Srinivasa said several farmers were forced into signing consent through local MLAs.A total of 2,560 acres across 74 villages was notified in 2007 for the PRR project. It has been pending ever since, as landowners have been demanding compensation under the 2013 Land Acquisition Act. The guidance values of land in these villages have been frozen since 2016 to avoid rapid cost escalation, but the same has been a point of contention for farmers and landowners.