The ambitious Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) still remains a pipe dream due to skyrocketing land acquisition costs and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is making a last-ditch effort to save the project, by trying to make the Transferrable Development Rights (TDR) more attractive.
BDA intends to do this by recommending reduction of the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) in the city from the present 1.75 to 1. This, the BDA officials believe, will create a lucrative market for TDR in the city.
BDA has so far failed to convince the land losing farmers to opt for TDR as a mode of compensation, forcing them to pay compensation under the new Land Acquisition Act, 2013. The cost of acquisition of 1,920 acres, as per the new law, is now estimated to be Rs. 8,100 crore and the BDA has argued that it has no resources for the acquisition.
Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), which is ready to finance the project, has stated that they will be able to fund only the road infrastructure part and not the land acquisition costs. This has raised questions over the future of the project.
In a last-ditch effort to push TDR, said to be the only way to bring down the acquisition costs, BDA Commissioner T. Sham Bhatt told The Hindu: “As the Local Planning Authority (LPA) for the city, we have put forth a proposal that the FAR in the city be brought down to 1 in 40 feet wide roads and further reduce the FAR proportionally on wider roads.”
This essentially means the total floor area one can build on a plot of land should not exceed the area of the plot of land. For instance, the floor area that includes balconies and staircases built on a 30ftX40ft plot should not exceed 1200 sqft. To make any addition to this floor area, one will have to buy TDR at twice the cost of guidance value as proposed in the new amendments.
“Most parts of Mumbai, where space is in high premium and has been traditionally a vertical city, the FAR is 1. Bengaluru is growing horizontally. An FAR of 1 will create a huge market for TDR making it a viable option for land losers. This is the only way to ease land acquisition in the city,” Mr. Bhatt argued.
