Palike to hand over K Park at Halasuru to MEG

For the last three years, construction of the railway over-bridge (ROB) at Byappanahalli has been stalled for want of land that was in the possession of Defence ministry.

Half of the bridge was constructed anticipating nod from the Defence ministry. All these years, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) efforts to get the land did not materialise. However, on Thursday the ministry agreed to part with almost two acres at a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in the city. In return, the BBMP will hand over 8,200 sq metre-K Park located on a hillock near the Halasuru Lake.

According to a BBMP official, a portion of the K Park is already in the control of Madras Sappers, a unit of the Indian Army, which has taken it on lease from the Palike. The lease is due for renewal this year. But the BBMP has proposed to hand over the entire K Park to the Madras Sappers in exchange of Madras Engineering Group's (MEG) land at Baiyappanahalli.

In all, the state government has agreed to provide at least 400 acres to the Defence Ministry. The Defence Ministry had demanded land equivalent to the guidance value of the land BBMP requires it to part with. Since the Ministry needed a huge piece of land near Bengaluru as well as in other parts of Karnataka, the state government agreed to the demand.

The state government has agreed to provide 400 acres to the Defence Ministry of which 207 acres of BBMP land is near Anekal. Rest of the land will be provided at Hubballi, Belagavi and Sakaleshpur in Hassan district.

A senior BBMP engineer said the Defence Ministry’s decision to provide land will hasten the road projects and help minimise traffic bottlenecks to a great extent.“We desperately need land at Baiyppanahalli, Old Airport Road, near Jalahalli, for the widening of Subrato Mukherjee Road and for the Ejipura Inner Ring Road,” he said.