Peripheral Ring Road will no longer be elevated corridor.

It’s back to square one for the ambitious 65-km Peripheral Ring Road project, which will no longer be an elevated corridor as proposed recently by BangaloreDevelopment Authority (BDA) in an attempt to cut down on land acquisition costs by nearly a half. Instead, the authorities have decided to revert to the original plan and build the road at grade (ground level).

The earlier proposal to take the elevated route, though was cost effective, was been criticised by urban planners and experts who argued that the plan was myopic. They put forth the case that it would only function as a path for through traffic and not lead to planned development of the area around the PPR, which is critical to prevent congestion in the core city area. The Draft Revised Master Plan (RMP) – 2031 had sought premium floor-area ratio (FAR) along the PRR to accommodate Bengaluru’s growing population over the next decade and a half.

“It was felt that the government would need all the notified land [1,920 acres] to provide for mass-rapid transit system and then elevated corridor made little sense,” said Mahendra Jain, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department.

With this decision, the government will have to mobilise finances to acquire 1,920 acres, estimated to cost nearly ₹8,500 crore. It has allocated ₹4,500 crore for the project, and the remaining amount is to be raised by “creative financing”.

The BDA plans to provide premium FAR up to 5. Of this, FAR up to 4 will be the norm, and the additional one will have to be purchased from the development authority. Land use changes and betterment charges are the two other avenues which the BDA is hoping to make good use of to raise funds.

There was another proposal before the State government to opt for a town planning scheme that would demarcate an impact zone on either side of the road. Here, landowners would give up land, but get back commercially developed plots along road, the value of which would be several times more than the land they had given up. This would bring land acquisition cost to zero. However, the government did not opt for a town planning scheme after the High Court mandated that only land required for the right of way of the PRR needs to be acquired.

“The BDA must take up a town planning scheme along the PRR through other instruments such as the RMP and the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act. If not, the PRR will go the way of the Outer Ring Road, where only properties abutting the road have benefited. The impact zone of the PRR is key for a sustainable growth of the city,” said Rejeet Mathews, head, Urban Development, WRI India.

Ms. Mathews said that providing a very high FAR of up to 5 along the PRR must be linked to provision of infrastructure such as public transport and water supply, in the absence of which people would resort to opting for private cars and digging borewells, only making it again unsustainable.

THE HINDU