The district administration's plan of developing a transportation hub, involving bus stands and other transport associated facilities, adjoining National Highway 17 at Pumpwell here might not realise fast.
It is because Mangalore City Corporation does not have funds to acquire 11.23 acres of additional land required for creating the hub. The corporation has now acquired only 7.5 acres of land on the side of the highway.
In the land already acquired, say official sources, the civic body is likely to loose some land for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for widening the stretch between Nanthoor Circle and Pumpwell as four-lane.
The fact that the civic body does not have funds to acquire the additional land came to the fore at a meeting presided over by Deputy Commissioner Subodh Yadav here on Thursday.
The district administration had planned to develop the hub, on about 18 acres to 20 acres of land on the public-private-partnership (PPP) model by constructing separate bus stands for private and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses on the same spot. However, the KSRTC has conveyed to the administration that it wanted to build a bus stand on its own provided the administration provided the land.
P. B. Karumbaiah, Senior Divisional Controller, Mangalore Division of KSRTC, told The Hindu on Sunday that the KSRTC needed five acres of land for the bus stand. Since it had the experience of constructing bus stands there was no need for it to go for PPP model at Pumpwell.
He said the KSRTC would pay for five acres of land if it was made available to it and go ahead with the construction.
Mr. Karumbaiah said the same had been conveyed to the district administration.
An official at the Thursday's meeting had made it clear that the civic body could not go ahead with additional land acquisition unless it reserved funds required, at least Rs. 11 crore, for it.
Now, even if the KSRTC paid for five acres of land needed by it, the civic body would have to reserve funds for acquiring additional six acres (for making it 18 acres) for creating the hub. The Government would have to evict some families on the land identified for acquisition.
At the current situation, only a bus stand either for private or for the KSRTC could be built and not the transportation hub as planned. Creating the hub depended on the civic body reserving funds for additional land acquisition and evacuating families on the land identified for acquisition. The blueprint for the hub was yet to be prepared.
