Broke BBMP may make TDR mandatory to fill its coffers

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is contemplating making Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) mandatory in an attempt to fill its empty coffers, the civic body’s administrator T M Vijaya Bhaskar has said.

“Land acquisition is our biggest challenge. Till date, we have given 15 lakh square metres of TDR, but just five lakh sq mts of that has been utilised. TDRs are not in demand in our city as people want money, not land. Creating market for TDR is a challenge,” he said at an interactive meeting at the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) here on Thursday.

Bhaskar also highlighted that Bengaluru’s budget was a lot lower than Mumbai’s. “While Mumbai has got Rs 33,000 crore, our budget is just Rs 5, 411 crore this year. Other challenges are co-ordinating with other civic agencies and efficient collection of penalty for violation of Floor Area Ratio, etc,” he added.

The BBMP administrator favoured the civic body’s trifurcation, citing the growing population. A legislative committee as well as an expert committee appointed by the State government is working on this. BBMP Commissioner G Kumar Naik, who was also present, declared: “Brand Bengaluru won’t be affected if the civic body is restructured.”

Drawing a comparison between the civic bodies of Mumbai and Bengaluru, Bhaskar said: “Mumbai gets more than Rs 1,000 crore as interest alone, whereas we have a loan of Rs 3,000 crore. If we go on the same path, mortgaging just the Town Hall and the BBMP head office would be enough.”

At the FKCCI meeting, selected representatives of various Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) and citizens raised issues that ranged from parking nuisance to garbage menace, illegal constructions to non-responsive Palike officers, and encroachments on footpaths to difficulty in khata transfers. They handed over memoranda to Palike.

Meanwhile, FKCCI members demanded that trade licence be abolished. The BBMP administrator and the commissioner promised to look into it.