Bangaloreans have lost faith! Only 850 applications filed for 3,500 BDA sites

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) recently got a rude shock after it received only 850 applications for its 3,500 sites, as per the information was obtained through an RTI by activist Sai Dutta. 

The home-buyers have lost their faith in the Bangalore Development Authority and fear that these government projects are unreliable - something that home-buyers in Banaswadi experience the hard way.

"The project cost is over  Rs 300 crores and until they finish they cannot issue any fresh notification for the formation of new sites and projects. This way, the BDA would become pauper in coming days,"Dutta said.

Venkatesh, an applicant for BDA site at Viveshwariah layout in Bengaluru East taluk, opined that investing on BDA site is like gambling these days."Many applicants who got the sites, lost the opportunity to build dream home as the land were under litigation. There are cases of lake land being sold and Banaswadi lake was one example. Many residents lost their home and few had got a stay," he said.

He also added that, the BDA should first get a land free from legal issue and it should provide basic amenities. In many areas, where BDA has formed layout, the basic facilities like road, sewage lines and drinking water supply are still an issue.

AT Ramaswamy, former chairman Joint Legislature Committee on Encroachments of Government land opined that, usually for BDA sites, there used to be a mad rush. The property then used to be allocated via a lottery system. For 500 sites there used to be over 25,000 applications at one point of time, but now people fear to take BDA sites.

"This is the irony that people have lost faith in government agency whose main duty is to ensure that every middle-class Bangalorean can buy an affordable home for himself," he said.

After getting a poor response on its recent site allotment, the BDA is forming 3,500 sites in 12 different locations and all projects will take another eight months to complete. As the application process is closed, the BDA is now contemplating on issuing another notification inviting people to take up the property.

• BDA
• 850
• 3500
• sites
• litigation
• layout
• RTI