Judicial projects may get land from Housing Department

Kumar, who held a review meeting with executive engineers of the PWD department on the ongoing construction works of courts and judicial quarters in almost all districts via video conferencing on Friday, later told reporters that he would hold discussions with Housing minister V Somanna in this regard.

Registrar General, High Court, Krishna Bhat and PWD principal secretary Subhash Chandra Kuntia, who have been inspecting the ongoing works the past three days, were also present in the meeting.

He said that the Housing department was in the process of acquiring 2,000 acres of land in 110 taluks for its housing projects, and that the Law department would make a proposal asking the Housing department to set aside at least 5 acres of land in each of these taluks.

Kumar also said that the 15 judicial quarters for High Court judges being constructed in Hebbal will be completed between March and August next year. Presently four quarters have been readied and they will be handed over to the judges on August 15, while four more will be completed in September. The remaining seven buildings will be handed over next year.

In the last two years, the State PWD department has built 38 new court buildings and 19 judicial quarters at a cost of Rs 35 crore.

The department is presently constructing 43 court buildings, out of which 16 have been completed, while 19 out of 23 judicial quarters have been readied.  An amount of Rs 71.54 crore has been set aside for the ongoing construction works. Kumar added that Rs 38 crore has been allocated for the new works. All the new court buildings will be equipped with generators, added Kumar.