Greater Bangalore to spread across 741 square kms

The Karnataka Government will soon bring in a piece of legislation to redefine the boundaries of Bangalore City by amalgamating seven City Municipal Councils, one Town Panchayat and over a hundred urbanized villages on its outskirts.

The amalgamation of these City Municipal Councils, Town Panchayat and a total of 109 villages with Bangalore will mark the formation of Greater Bangalore, which will spread across a total of 741 square kilometers, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy announced at an interactive seminar “Bangalore Today and Tomorrow” attended by representatives of various civic agencies, non governmental organizations and residents welfare associations.

Kumaraswamy said the formation of Greater Bangalore was aimed at bringing the City and its suburbs under a single administrative entity that would take up all infrastructure development works like roads and drinking water supply.

The Chief Minister promised the citizens of Bangalore a good network of roads between various townships, some allowing motorists to zip at a speed of 150 kms per hour, besides 200,000 budget houses for the poor and economically weaker sections of Bangalore.

A poor infrastructure of roads and inadequate housing had become the bane of Bangalore, which saw a huge influx of people from various parts of the country ever since the City became a hotspot for Information Technology (IT) industry.

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which acquires land and develops residential layouts, will not focus on the vertical growth of the City. Twenty per cent of the area earmarked for distribution of residential sites will be reserved for high-rise apartments, he said.

Kumaraswamy also promised to convert Bangalore into a slum-free City by taking up an integrated housing project, envisaging construction of apartments across 31 slums at a cost of Rs 2 billion.