BENGALURU: It is highly unlikely that the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) will be able to adhere to the December 2021 deadline for completion of all basic amenities at the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout (NPKL). The reduced workforce due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in Karnataka coupled with an acute shortage of raw material earlier has ensured a sluggish pace of work in this sprawling Layout.
The Layout, located between Mysuru Road and Magadi Road, was proposed in 2010. Allotment of sites began in 2015 and a total of 10,000 allottees have been given sites here in two phases. It was supposed to be fully ready with all infrastructure by March 31, 2018. After a series of delays, allottees at the Layout had taken the BDA to the state's Real Estate Regulatory Authority court, which had fixed a deadline of December 31, 2021.
A senior BDA official told The New Indian Express that though the issue has been resolved now, the non-availability of material for construction work had severely impacted work in the last two months. “The gelatine blast that occurred in Chikkaballapur district in February this year and at a stone quarry at Hunasodu in Shivamogga a month earlier, both of which resulted in deaths, brought in stringent rules for operating quarries. The shutdown of quarries had caused a huge shortage of raw material for us in March and April. We have started receiving the raw material just recently," he said.
The Layout needs to have at least 6,000 manholes to be put in place for the Sewerage network that is being proposed. “All of them need jelly and other material for pre-cast work. We need to keep the cast ready before laying of roads. Hence, the shortage of material had slowed down much of the infrastructure projects we had planned,” he said.
The Authority was doing its best to ensure the deadline could be met. “A good chunk of labourers too have left for their hometown due to COVID surge in Bengaluru and there is a shortage of skilled labour right now,” he explained.
A member of the NPKL Open Forum, comprising site allottees of Kempegowda Layout Phase-I and II, A S Surya Kiran, told The New Indian Express, "BDA looks all set to miss the NPKL deadline once again as major issues relating to land acquisition, water supply, Sewage Treatment Plant and Electricity etc are still pending due to lack of planning. They have to shell out additional revenue in the form of compensation for delayed projects at RERA."