Karnataka govt identifies land in 7 districts for integrated Industrial townships

In the first phase, authorities have decided to use only government land as acquisition of private properties is seeing a pushback

The state government has kickstarted the process of identifying large hectares of land in at least seven districts for the formation of integrated industrial townships.

In the first phase, authorities have decided to use only government land as the acquisition of private properties is seeing a pushback.

The districts where government land has been shortlisted include 1,260 acres in Chikballapur, 962 acres in Kolar, 500 acres at Challakere in Chitradurga and 840 acres at Bankapura in Belagavi.

A large parcel of land has been identified in Kalaburagi, Bidar and Hosakote (Bengaluru rural district), officials said.

“We are considering at least three factors - availability of water, encroachment-free land and proper road connectivity before shortlisting a large piece of land for the industrial townships,” Rakesh Singh, additional chief secretary of the urban development department (UDD), said.

“The township will be industry-centric. No city will develop unless there are jobs. So far, we have had three high-level meetings,” he said.

Last month, chief secretary Vanditha Sharma chaired a meeting to fast-track the project.

While UDD was directed to prepare a concept note as well as an expression of interest to design and plan the townships, regional commissioners were tasked with identifying land parcels.

In the 2022-23 budget, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced building planned and eco-friendly townships “to realize the aim of New Karnataka for New India.”

“These futuristic townships will be constructed with basic infrastructure, housing, health, education and industrial areas. One township will be constructed in each revenue division,” Bommai had said.

Vivek Vaidyanathan, the independent urban planner, said the concept of a 15-minute city is being actively considered across the globe.

“Jamdeshpur in Jharkhand, Durgapur in West Bengal, and BARC Colony in Mumbai are the best examples of how townships can be built. Other than private firms, we have not seen similar investments by the government lately,” he said.

“While creating ready-to-move infrastructure is a welcome step, it takes a lot of work to attract companies to move to a new place. But it is definitely worth attempting.”

Officials said residential layouts would be a part of the proposed industrial townships which will come up in different districts - as compared to the Chennai-Bengaluru industrial corridor, where focus is likely to be on developing commercial hubs.