The Cantonment area of Bengaluru is now the Central Business District. The city has grown from 226 sq kms to 800-odd sq kms and with it the need for infrastructure projects. When it comes to widening of roads, building a metro project, flyovers or grade separators, it is inevitable for authorities like the BBMP, BDA or BMRCL to seek a few metres of defence land. Sadly, the peace-time military is keen on building residential quarters or offices than helping the city.
Some of the crucial projects have hit a dead end, thanks to the non co-operation from the defence authorities, who are reluctant to part with their prime properties in the heart of the city. It’s not even as though the civic authorities are demanding acres of land, but only a few sq meters. As a result, the growing traffic has worsened.
Experts say, everybody is to be blamed for the present situation. The civic agencies for not being transparent and not calling public meetings for public projects, the Centre for exempting itself from land acquisition laws and the state for time and again failing to keep promises to give alternative land to the defence segment and thereby lowering its creditability.
Amidst all this, many important infrastructure projects like ROB Byappanahalli, the Widening of the Subrati Mukherjee Road, Extension of ROB Banaswadi, the Widening of the Lashkar Hosur Road , the Widening of the HAL airport road , the Widening of Murphy Road are still pending. The implementation of these projects could have boosted the city’s infrastructure in a huge way by easing the daily traffic chaos.
MLA, N. A. Haris from the Shantinagar constituency has had many disagreements with the defence authorities for years. He says, “My constituency is surrounded by defence land, left, right and centre. People are lodging various complaints and are constantly demanding several projects, but in the absence of a liberal approach by the defence -- how are we to get it done?”
Some residents complain that the Defence is leaking water on neighbouring areas, so there is an urgent need of storm water drains which have not been provided. The defence authorities must understand that when these lands were given to them, Bengaluru was not so huge but today pressure to expand has increased and so has the need for such projects.”
There are many railway projects too, that have either been delayed or have not seen the light of day, as they are part of defence land. A source from the railway says, “The projects involving the railway have been time consuming… in fact they are its biggest hurdle. In most cases, we approach the local administration to talk with the ministry of defence to acquire the land for us.”
Pointing to the challenges in public projects involving Defence land, he says, “The Defence lives in its own world. They are self-contained. Since they do not undergo the problems faced by common people, they are not sympathetic towards them. They need alternative lands and that too bigger ones. Again, they need proper locations also.”
Earlier, most of these projects were hurled at engineers or commissioners. Now it is better late than never. “Now we have a dedicated minister for the city to look after these issues and he is making efforts to push the public projects involving defence land. Admittedly, the process has become faster than before.”
Defence spokesperson Dr M S Patil says, “The Ministry of Defence is very cooperative, all these agencies need is to just approach them and a solution will emerge. In the case of issues surrounding defence land while constructing the new airport land, the ministry was very cooperative and today we have a beautiful road leading to the airport.”
Need for defence land for BBMP infrastructure projects, like:
- Road Over Bridge (ROB) at Byappanahalli
- Widening of Subrato Mukherjee Road
- Widening of flyover at Banaswadi
- Providing footpath on HAL Airport Road
- Widening of Lashkar Hosur Road
- Widening of HAL Airport Road
- Widening of Murphy Town Road
- Widening of Ulsoor Road
- Widening of Victoria Road
- Widening of Lower Agaram Road
- Road between Ejipura Intermediate Ring Road and Sarjapur main Road
No defence, part with your land already!
Considering that several mega infrastructure projects are in limbo for want of defence land, putting commuters in great distress, urban experts feel that there is a dire need to form a co-ordination committee between the state government and defence authorities, including members of parliament representing Karnataka, to ensure that the projects see the light of day.
Urban expert Vivek Menon said that defence authorities have huge parcels of land under their belts. As the city has grown exponentially, the cantonment areas have become part of the central business district. It is essential for the defence authorities to part with their land for infrastructure projects in the larger interest of public.
The one of the reasons why reluctance from defence authorities has been attributed to trust deficit and corrupt practices from government and parastatal agencies. But there is a mounting pressure on the civic bodies to acquire land for infrastructure projects, he said.
A model needs to be evolved by forming a co-ordination committee comprising MPs and high-rank representatives from state and defence authorities to part with land required for projects. Or, probably, another model may need to have particular land in lease for project execution. In case of lease violation the defence authorities may retrieve their land, he suggested.
Another civic evangelist, V. Ravichandar, calls for a need for an administrative co-ordination committee with only officials at local level. Authorities from the defence and public sector must be locally empowered to hold meetings and send the same to Delhi for approval. Members of Parliament may be involved for major projects and requirement of large lands, he said.
Clearing hurdles for infrastructure projects at local and higher levels certainly will bail out the public and save public money from being wasted in incomplete projects, adds Mr. Ravichandar.
N. Mukund, Secretary of Citizens' Action Forum (CAF) said that co-ordination committees are the answer to solve hurdles. In return, defence authorities can get alternative land or the civic agency may build housing projects for their requirements.
