Bengaluru: With the state gearing up for the next Assembly elections, Bengaluru city has received a bounty for developing infrastructure as well as other facilities.
While a Special Purpose Vehicle has been created to transform the IT City into a ‘smart city', Bengaluru will also get a Centre for Excellence in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence on a hub and spokes model, which would be constructed at a cost of Rs 40 crore.
The Cabinet also approved the Karnataka Bio-Technology Policy, 2017-2022, extending various concessions to boost the industry, which has the second largest number of establishments in the country.
3K buses for BMTC
After the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra told reporters that the Cabinet had given administrative approval to induct 3,000 buses into the BMTC fleet. While BMTC would purchase 1,500 buses, the rest of the buses would be taken on lease by paying Rs 77 crore to private operators.
Houses for poor
The Cabinet has also approved construction of one lakh multi-storied houses on government land for economically weaker sections. After recovering land from encroachers, around 4,500 acres of land is available with the government, where the houses would be constructed.
The Housing Department would take Rs 500 crore from HUDCO to construct the houses while the Centre will give around Rs 1,000 crore. The beneficiaries would be asked to pay Rs 1 lakh each for the houses, he said.
The Cabinet also approved a proposal to increase the project cost of Cauvery Water Supply Scheme Stage-V from Rs 5,052 crore to Rs 5,550 crore, for providing sewerage network in the newly added 110 villages of BBMP and bulk water supply of 775 MLD under JICA assistance.
Bicycle sharing
The government has also decided to introduce the public bicycle sharing system in Bengaluru city at a cost of Rs 80.18 crore. The government will purchase bicycles and give it on sharing basis to the public on rental basis, Mr Jayachandra added.
Among other decisions, the cabinet has approved escalation of the project cost of Krishna Right Bank Canal Project from Rs 17,006 crore to Rs 51,148 crore.
Earlier in 2012, the Cabinet had given administrative approval for the project. Water Resource Minister Mr M.B. Patil said that the government had fixed the land acquisition cost at Rs 2.5 lakh per acre. However, in 2013, the government came out with a new acquisition compensation policy, under which four times of the guidance value of land in the particular area would be paid. This escalated the land acquisition cost.
Mr Patil said that the project would need 1.33 lakh acres to augment 169 tmc ft of water, which would irrigate 6.19 lakh hectares.
