Bangalore: Mr Suresh Mevrva who runs a shop called Mateshwari electricals said 250sq feet land was taken and the government had given compensation of around 4500 Rs per sq feet but no compensation has been given for other losses on the asserts of his shop that he incurred.
To work on the road infrastructure development, the government decided to widen the roads. To widen the road, the plan is to increase the width of the road by extracting property from near areas. Bangalore is a place where traffic is a big problem. In 2003 the government of Karnataka came up with ideas to widen roads. The City Development Plan (CDP) made by the BBMP under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funds focused on the need for improving road infrastructure. After going through the situation, the BBMP realized that the width of the road is a problem. ‘.In July 2008, work for widening of roads in many areas in Bangalore were seen. In many places like MG Road, Hosur, Race course, the road widening projects took place successfully and many places like the Mysore road, old Madras road and Kanakpura road the work is still on.
Due to the road widening projects, land has been taken from the shops that are along the road. The problem arises when these shopkeepers and landowners are not compensated for the land acquired from them, as promised.
Mr Bhagharam, who runs a grocery shop there he said he is running a shop there from past 13 years as a tentant and his concern was that he lost around 20 foot land the government has given compensation to the land owner and the land owner did not give any money to him.
Image Courtesy: Suresh.M, Shop owner
The Mysore road widening project was started with the purpose of making the road six lane to avoid traffic and crowding in the road. It is named the six lane Bengaluru-Nidaghatta-Mysuru stretch. The time travel for commuters between Mysore and Bangalore is expected to decrease from three hours to 90 minutes. As per Hindu reports the work on the 118 km long expressway between Columbia Asia junction in Mysuru and Panchamukhi Temple near NICE Road junction in Bangalore began in 2018 and will complete by 2022. For this the land has been acquired by from shops that are on that road. However the shopkeepers have said that they haven’t been compensated for the land that has been taken. The shop owners have suffered a loss of 2.5 to 3 lakhs, which is not compensated yet by the authorities. Few shopkeepers say that even if the land owners were compensated, the shop keeper was not compensated for the loss they incurred from their business. Other shop keepers located in Kanakpura road and old madras road where the road widening projects are happening are also facing the same problem. They say even though the BBMP promised them to give a compensation for the losses they incurred they have not given it yet.
MR Raju who is running a pan shop in Kanakpura road for past 1.5 years he said his big piece of land was taken but no compensation given.
Image Courtesy: TOI
Mujeeth a bakery owner who runs his bakery in Mysore road said his 20 foot land was acquired by the BBMP, he was promised a sum of 4000 Rs per sq feet but not a single penny is compensated.
Not only shops, but few people complain that their residential properties were also acquired from them for the project, but no promises have been fulfilled yet.
BBMP officials say that they are still waiting for the allocation of money for compensation from higher authorities till then they cannot do anything.
Keywords : Compensation, Road widening, Money, TDR, Shop owners
Bangalore – Mysore infrastructure map- Image Courtesy : TOI
