Shivaram Karanth Layout ready for site sale in record three years

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is planning to notify sale of sites in the Dr K Shivaram Karanth Layout in two weeks and finish the formalities by December-end, three years after the process began.

The residential project, the second largest after the Sir M Visvesvaraya Layout, will have 34,000 sites, including 4,500 corner plots.

While 15,000 sites are reserved for farmers as compensation for giving up their land, the BDA plans to allot about 12,000 sites for the general public.

Justice AV Chandrashekar, who heads the Supreme Court-appointed committee, said on Friday that the work to number the site has begun. He stressed that site allotment will begin only after they are numbered as the committee does not want to repeat the mistakes made in the Arkavathi and Kempegowda layouts where sites were sold based on plans that existed only on paper.

Former BDA commissioner Jayakar Jerome said the formation of roads and drains in the layout is nearing completion. “We have asked the BDA to finalise the rates and start the process of allotments,” said Jerome, who has a record of delivering three large layouts, including Anjanapura and Sir M Visvesvaraya.

“When the allotments begin, a team of engineers will camp at the site so that people can actually see the work before making the payment,” he added.

Last layout?

Located in North Bengaluru, the Shivaram Karanth Layout will be the last big layout the BDA will ever form, given the complexities in land acquisition and other challenges in implementing the projects.

Although the preliminary notification for the project was issued in 2008, it was stuck in litigation for 13 years.

The project received a new lease of life in December 2020, when the Supreme Court tasked the Justice Chandrashekar Committee (JCC) with the responsibility.

Farmers’ protest

Regarding complaints of farmers protesting against the land acquisition, the committee said that some of them were initially misguided.

But most supported the project as they started issuing entitlement certificates, which is a first-of-its-kind decision to guarantee them that they will be compensated with developed sites (9,583 sqft per acre), it said.

Three people who helmed the project

1) Justice AV Chandrashekar, former judge of Karnataka High Court

2) ST Ramesh, former Karnataka DG&IGP 

3) Jayakar Jerome, former commissioner of BDA

Three years of magic

Stuck in litigation for 13 years, the Supreme Court trusted the three-member committee with the task of first regularising the existing buildings in December 2020 and then supervising the layout’s formation in October 2022. In February, the BDA began the civil works. The project is in the final stages for allotment.

Second largest layout 

The Dr K Shivaram Karanth Layout is situated in North Bengaluru and close to the Kempegowda International Airport.

It will have 34,000 sites: 15,000 (farmers), 12,000 (public), 2,500 (revenue site holders), and 4,500 (corner sites for auctioning).