The Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) has started auctioning sites in various layouts. This comes two months after Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa announced that around 12,000 BDA sites will be auctioned as an additional source of much-needed revenue for the State government.
E-auctions for sites at HSR Layout, Sir M. Visvesvaraya Layout, Banashankari, NGEF, J.P. Nagar and Rajajinagar will start from June 20.
BDA Commissioner H.R. Mahadev told The Hindu that e-auctioning of the sites will be done in a phased manner in the coming days. “As per estimates, about 12,000 sites are available. There are doubts about the number. I have asked officials to do an audit. Probably, we may have around 7,000 sites for sale. At this stage, it is difficult to estimate how much revenue it will generate,” the official said.
The cash-strapped BDA has been e-auctioning its sites for the last several years. In the past, on many occasions, the BDA had tried to generate revenue by auctioning sites to fund civil infrastructure projects. For instance, the BDA had maintained that revenue from the auctions would be used to fund the steel flyover project, which was later shelved.
A senior BDA official said, “This time, we are selling corner sites, which generally are in demand. We will observe how people react to our notification during these difficult times of COVID-19. Ashada month is also approaching. In the first phase, 200-odd sites will be auctioned off. Based on the response, we will decide on the next phase of e-auctions.”
The cost of a site ranges from ₹36,000 per square metre to ₹1.60 lakh per sq metre depending on the location. The maximum number of sites is available at M. Visvesvaraya Layout and Banashankari.
“The BDA has fixed 1.5 times the guidance value as the price for sites located in layouts that were formed before 2000, and 1.2 times the guidance value for layouts formed after 2000,” the official added.
