Property cards fail to take off in Bangalore

But it will be implemented in Mysore, Mangalore, Shimoga from October

September 17, 2014 12:54 am | Updated 01:08 am IST - BANGALORE:

Even as Property Register (PR) cards issued under the Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) Project are being made mandatory across three cities in the State, the project is yet to take off in Bangalore. The setback is despite the project being launched in the city two years ago.

The project was to have been launched in 50 of the 198 wards in Bangalore by the Survey Settlement and Land Records Department in the first phase. A tender called to take up work had to be cancelled.

A senior official from the department said while they had estimated the cost to be around Rs. 12 crore, the lowest bid was Rs. 40 crore, which affected the project’s progress.

Currently, the department is in a consultative process over restructuring the tender process. Officials said that it may be a couple of months before the process is reinitiated. While UPOR project is taken up in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model in other cities, the State government decided to completely fund the project in the city, which has led to a delay in its implementation.

Challenges

Tier II cities were first chosen to implement UPOR since they expected many hurdles in Bangalore.

“There are many revenue pockets in the city and records of a large chunk of the properties are suspect. There is also large-scale encroachment of government lands. A comprehensive survey of the city itself poses great challenge,” an official explained. The official added that they were now hardened with the experience of implementing the project in five cities across the State.

The official said that the project would only try to reconcile the on-ground situation with property records and not attempt any changes. Thus, the PR cards to be issued in the city would record all violations like non-conversion of land usage, B Khata, non-approval of layout plan and violation of building plan. Thus, such cards would only be a conditional PR Card.

Must in three cities

Four years after the launch of Urban Property Ownership Records (UPOR) Project in Mysore, Mangalore, Shimoga, Bellary and Hubli, the State government has decided to make the PR card mandatory for all property transactions in three of the cities from October.

A PR card will be a must in any property transaction in Mysore, Mangalore and Shimoga from October first week. The card will serve as the authorised ownership record of a property.

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