3.28 acres of govt. land worth Rs. 1,000 crore recovered in Whitefield

The encroached land had been granted in 2005 to set up an ice cream unit, but was sold to a real-estate company

Continuing the anti-encroachment drive, officials of the district administration on Monday recovered 3.28 acres of government land in Whitefield, which had been encroached by a leading real estate company to build apartments and villas.

The recovered land is worth about Rs. 1,000 crore, Bangalore East division tahsildar Harish Nayak said.

According to him, the encroached land had been granted by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board in Pattandur Agrahara in Whitefield in 2005 to a city-based company to set up an ice cream unit.

However, after one year of the allotment, the company reportedly sold the land to the construction company, which in turn built high-end apartments and villas.

The Revenue Department, which filed a report in this regard, got a direction from the State government on May 22 to recover the land. Subsequently, a team of officials led by Deputy Commissioner (Bangalore Urban) V. Shankar went to the spot and recovered the land. “Though the land has been recovered we are yet to decide upon the demolition process,” Mr. Nayak said.