The allottees of sites in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout are hopeful of getting solution to their problems such as lack of major arterial road and water supply in the upcoming days, after the petitions committee of the legislature, headed by Vishwanath Chandrashekhar Mamani, inspected the progress at the layout on Thursday.
The 16-member committee examined the development of basic resources and facilities in the layout, which is being developed by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), and also interacted with the allottees and heard their grievances.
The allottees say that as the layout develops and people start to occupy the nine blocks, traffic density will also increase, for which, a major arterial road is necessary. They also say that the primary pipeline of Cauvery water supply to be brought in from Magadi Road to the layout should also pass through the arterial road. While some work has started on providing temporary power supply to the layout, works like underground drains and other amenities are still in the pipeline, according to the residents.
“Tender was called and work started on one out of the five substations for power supply near Komaghatta. The committee members said that by December, temporary solutions will be devised for the water supply. They told us that underground drain work was approved by the government on Wednesday and the pending dues of contractors will be settled soon. We think that in a month, full-fledged work can be seen here. But until all the approvals are received, we cannot say anything with certainty,” said Suryakumar, an allottee.
He added that had the work been taken up six years ago when the allotments were made, the brunt of material costs would have been drastically less.
While the development work at the layout had taken a hit the last three years due to the pandemic, the BDA officials assured that if site owners come forward to build houses now, water, electricity and kaccha roads will be provided promptly.
Commissioner Rajesh Gowda said that experts from IIT-Bombay have inspected the moisture issue in the sites near Kannalli lake and a retaining wall will be built from the depth of 12 metres at a cost of ₹12 crore to ensure that moisture content does not enter the sites.
Speaking to The Hindu, S. Suresh Kumar, MLA, and one of the members of the petitions committee, said, “Answering one of my questions in the Assembly, the Chief Minister had told that all the problems there will be resolved by December 2022. The BDA Chairman, during the inspection, said that basic amenities will be provided for those who start building and that work will start soon on motorable roads. We have not closed this issue; we are keeping it open. In two months, we will review the progress again and then think about recommending our view points to the government.”
