“The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is in the process of acquiring land to form five new layouts to meet the ever-growing housing needs of the people in the city,” Bhardwaj told lawmakers in his joint address to the state legislature on the first day of the budget session here.

The proposed layouts will enable the BDA to distribute 174,000 sites to the eligible citizens.

The state-run BDA issued final notification to acquire about 4,000 acres of land to form the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda layout.

Preliminary notification has been issued to acquire lands for forming Shivarama Karanath layout, K.C. Reddy layout, Sri Devaraj Urs layout and Nijilingappa layout.“The state government has accorded top priority to develop infrastructure in and around Bangalore. Civil works worth Rs.3,100 crore are under implementation this fiscal (2009-10). Approval for 12 signal-free corridors in the extended areas of the city has been given,” Bhardwaj informed the legislative members.

The governor assured the house that the Bangalore Metro project would be commissioned by March 2013.Highlighting the measures taken for urban development through local bodies, Bhardwaj said Karnataka was first in the country to initiate geographical information system (GIS)-based property tax assessment in five cities through public-private partnership (PPP).

“The GIS system will enable registration of all properties and facilitate owners to get clear property title. The system will be scaled up to other cities across the state in a phased manner.

Referring to the e-governance programmes underway, the governor said the Karnataka state wide area network (SWAN) has been commissioned and value of works tenders through the e-procurement mode had increased to Rs.20,000 crore.

“The government plans to set up a call centre to enable citizens seeking information and filing applications under the Right to Information Act. The 24x7 helpline will improve the public delivery system,” the governor added.