Bengaluru Peripheral Ring Road: HC directs BDA to acquire pending land

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has upheld the land acquisition process undertaken by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) for the construction of Peripheral Ring Road-2 connecting Hosur-Mysore Road and Tumkur Road. It has also directed it to acquire the pending land.

A single-judge bench of Justice ES Indiresh, examining the petitions filed by M Vanitha of Kengeri and others, upheld the preliminary notification issued in 2005 and both the notifications issued in 2011 by the BDA under the Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Right to Just Compensation Act, 2013.

After hearing the arguments, the bench accepted the petitions and ordered, “If the BDA has not acquired the land, it should immediately acquire it and announce compensation within six months.” Also, “The respondent BDA has already completed 80 percent of the work on the Peripheral Ring Road (Part-2). The construction of a metro station, service road and other works need to be carried out to facilitate the safe movement of the public and vehicles. Therefore, the court cannot interfere at this stage in the notifications already issued by the BDA,” it ordered.

Rejecting the petitioner’s argument that the BDA has changed the route in the road development project, the court said that considering all the factual aspects and the judgments given by the Supreme Court, the entire project should be completed as soon as possible in the public’s view. Therefore, it cannot interfere in the land acquisition process at the last stage. The BDA has not announced compensation only in some cases, but has announced compensation for those who will lose land in the rest. The bench said that compensation should be given immediately to those who have not yet been compensated and the pending works of truck terminal, skywalk, bus depot and other facilities should be completed for the smooth movement of public and vehicles.

The petitioner’s counsel said that the land owners have questioned the land acquisition notifications for the purpose of the project. The final notification was issued a decade after the initial notification. So far, no compensation has been announced to the land owners. The notification is against Section 36(3) of the BDA Act. Therefore, the notifications should be quashed, the court had requested.

Rejecting this argument, the BDA counsel said, ‘The applications have been filed three years after the acquisition process began. Compensation notices have already been issued to the land owners. The land of some land owners has been mahajar conducted and the land has been handed over to the engineering department. According to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961, the road construction project has not been canceled. A total of 10.35 km of main road was to be constructed.

Of this, 8.53 km of road has been constructed. Only the remaining 1.8 km of road work is pending. Therefore, the applications should be dismissed, they had requested.