The Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) will extend a fresh loan of Rs 2,500 crore to the Karnataka government for various urban development and housing projects. This includes a fresh loan of Rs 1,500 crore to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). The corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government on Friday in this connection.
“We had extended a loan of Rs 700 crore to the BMRCL for the first phase of Metro in the city. Today, we have announced another Rs 500 crore towards the first phase of the project, while another Rs 1,000 crore would be extended for the second phase of the Bangalore Metro,” V P Baligar, Managing Director, Hudco, told Business Standard on the sidelines of a seminar on housing and urban development organized as part of the Global Investors’ Meet, here on Friday.
Apart from announcing a fresh loan to the Bangalore Metro, the corporation also announced Rs 500 crore each to Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation and Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) for carrying out various new projects, Baligar said.
First phase of the Bangalore Metro involves construction of rail lines for 42.3 kms at a cost of Rs 11,609 crore and the second phase involves 72 kms at a cost of over Rs 25,000 crore. The Reach-1, involving a distance of 6.7 kms on the East-West corridor in first phase, has been completed and commissioned for public use, while the works on the remaining four reaches are under progress at various parts of the city. The state government is presently awaiting Central government’s approval for the second phase of the Bangalore Metro.
Earlier, speaking a seminar at GIM, Baligar suggested that the state governments take up development of 100 acres to 500 acres at each taluk and district levels respectively to provide housing and urban infrastructure projects.
He said, 38.6 per cent of the population presently lives in the urban areas and by 2039 about 50 per cent of the national population would move to urban centres. This requires the creation of huge infrastructure in the areas of housing and urban development, he said.
Rajeev Chawla, metropolitan commissioner, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), said the BMRDA Act would be revamped soon to enable it to prepare a systematic plan of the city of Bangalore. “The state government is thinking of innovative funding options to provide finance to urban local bodies to take up development projects. There are options available like municipal bonds, PPP projects to fund the public projects. But, the government is thinking of coming out with innovative plans to fund the civic projects,” Chawla said.
The BMRDA is also in the process of preparing base maps for Bangalore city spread over 8,800 sq kms.
The maps would provide details of all properties, both government and private, illegal and legal. The maps would be uploaded on the BMRDA website and be made available to the public very soon, he said.
The BMRDA has finalised four vendors for the development of an integrated township in Bidadi, which will be spread over 9,000 acres. The government will finalise the vendor after the new Land Acquisition Act comes into effect, he added.
BBMP Commissioner Shankaralinge Gowda said BBMP proposes to build about 200 skywalks with lift facility and 2,000 public toilets in Bangalore city under the public private partnership (PPP) mode. The BBMP is also planning to generate energy using solid municipal waste. Bangalore city generates about 5,000 tonnes of solid waste every day.
