Mayor visits site to be swapped with army

Mayor R Sampath Raj, accompanied by officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Defence department, inspected the 207.29 acre of land at Chamanayakhnahalli near Anekal on Friday that was swapped with the Defence Ministry for 10 infrastructure projects in the city.

The land swap was recently agreed upon by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a meeting in Bengaluru on August 4.

At least 10 projects, including road widening and flyovers, are either half-constructed or have been in limbo for several years, as defence agencies refused to part with their land.

The BBMP requires 16.52 acre of defence land for various projects.

The state government has agreed to transfer 207.29 acre of land in and around Bengaluru worth Rs 488.42 crore to the Defence ministry, which will part with 16.52 acre in the city worth Rs 282 crore.

Sampath Raj told reporters, “Once the land is swapped with the defence ministry, we will start infrastructure work.”