Karnataka government approves 98 new housing layouts

The B S Yediyurappa administration has approved a Rs 7,275-crore project to develop 98 new residential layouts across the state, the first such exercise in the housing sector in eight years.

The last time the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) was allowed to develop layouts was in 2012, which are still under development, according to officials.

Housing Minister V Somanna, who pushed for new layouts to be developed, said the government wanted to “hit the brakes” on the dominance of the private sector by competing in the realty business. “This project will cover 28 districts. Over one lakh people will benefit from this,” he told DH.

Over the next three years, KHB will require 7,853 acres to develop the new layouts in 98 taluks. A total of 1.13 lakh sites and 3,960 houses will be developed. “People prefer to own sites rather than houses,” Somanna pointed out.

Mysuru taluk will get the highest number of sites at 10,300 (Somanna was the minister in charge of the Mysuru district), followed by Dharwad (6,700) and Ballari (6,320).

“The project will also cover taluks that are starved for development and are in need of sites and houses,” Housing Secretary Manoj Kumar Meena said.

The project will be funded on a ‘sharing basis’ with which the government said it had found success in the past. “If we develop 20 sites on one acre of land, 10 sites will go to the land owner. KHB is the only one offering this 50:50 sharing. The BDA, for instance, offers 40:60 (40% of a layout for land owners),” Meena explained.

“For farmers, especially, this sharing model works out better than the compensation under the Land Acquisition Act. For us, it helps us get work done faster and we won’t have to spend money on land,” Meena added.

The Housing Department is sitting on assets worth Rs 3,000 crore that will be liquidated to fund the project going forward. “We have corner sites and commercial sites that are reserved to be auctioned as and when we require money,” Meena said.

Housing is one area Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has identified as a priority, what with Karnataka home to 36.69 lakh houseless and siteless families, according to a recent Housing Department
survey.