Acquisitions upheld

Bangalore, dhns: The High Court on Tuesday dismissed two petitions by some software companies against acquisition of their lands for the purpose of Elevated Highway project under construction between Silk Board junction and Electronics City on Hosur Road.

Perk International, FANUC India Pvt Ltd and four other firms having units in Electronic City had challenged the acquisition of their lands for construction of the Highway’s ramp landing into Electronic City. They had proposed re-alignment of the ramp with a u-turn so that their lands could be saved, while willing to bear the additional costs that might be incurred.

Justice N Kumar observed that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), handling the project had examined their proposal and rejected. It  opined that re-location of the ramp would create a bottleneck for traffic and rise concerns as to road safety, the judge observed. Any change in the alignment would cause delay of about 12 months in completion of the project, he observed.

Service road alignment

The Court dismissed another petition by Union government’s enterprise Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), challenging acquisition of a portion of its land and seeking re-alignment of Highway’s service road four feet away from its compound wall, imposing exemplary costs.

C-DOT had stated that it had constructed a huge overhead tank of two lakh gallon capacity and sumps spending crores of rupees and construction of service road close to it would damage the same. Justice N Kumar observed that re-alignment was not acceptable. The judge also observed that there was a tampering in the letter produced by the company to support its contention that NHAI had previously agreed to spare its compound wall also.

Property lease to BJP

The Court sought a statement from the Government to reveal the true facts and actual position of a civic amenity space in Malleshwaram which is alleged to be granted on lease to the BJP. This followed a PIL by K Satish and some residents of Malleshwaram who have challenged the BBMP action in leasing out about 9,000 sq ft land in property in Malleshwaram for the purpose of BJP office.

Notice to KSSIDC

The Court ordered issue of notices to State government and Karnataka State Small Industries Development Corporation, while admitting a PIL challenging improper publicity of a notice inviting applications for allotment of stray plots / sheds / flats to small scale industries, in Bangalore Urban and Rural districts.