HMT to part with 4 acres for widening of road in Jalahalli

After dilly-dallying for nearly two years, the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) has agreed to part with around four acres of land in different patches for widening of HMT Road in Jalahalli, north Bengaluru.

The company has agreed to the compensation of 1.65 times the guidance value. An acre costs Rs 2.7 crore under the current guidance value, and the company has asked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to pay Rs 12 crore immediately. The High Court, which is hearing a Miscellaneous First Appeal (MFA) by the BBMP, directed the civic body to pay the sum within four weeks.

In March 2014, the BBMP started the project to widen HMT Road till MK Mathulla Stadium from the existing 40 feet to 80 feet, and requested the company to part with 8,239 square metres of land. The BBMP offered the Transferrable Development Rights (TDR) certificate in lieu of compensation, but the HMT sought monetary compensation. The civic body expressed its inability, saying it was already incurring a huge expenditure to develop the road and asked the company to accept the TDR certificate.

The BBMP then made attempts to widen the road by bringing in the machinery, but the HMT showed resistance and filed an original suit before the City Civil Court which directed both the parties to maintain status quo. The civic body later filed the MFA in the High Court against the lower court’s order. During the hearing in the High Court, it emerged that the BBMP had violated building bye-laws by sanctioning the plan of several apartments in the vicinity of the road-widening project without verifying the width of the road.

Justice A N Venugopala Gowda, who is hearing the matter, censured the BBMP and pointed out to its commissioner about the agony faced by the general public. The judge remarked that several developmental works were delayed because of lack of co-ordination and proper planning and had led to traffic congestion and wastage of man-hours, material resources and people’s time. It also came to the fore that developmental works were hampered on account of ad interim orders passed by the courts. The judge has sought details of all the ad interim orders that have put developmental projects on hold.
The next hearing is on October 17, 2016.