The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike ((BBMP) and other agencies of the State government are now required to allow a developer to complete a skywalk near satellite bus station on Mysore road without causing any obstruction as a Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday dismissed an appeal filed by the BBMP.
The BBMP had questioned a single judge’s June 2022 order of setting aside the civic body’s January 2020 decision of cancelling the permission, granted in 2018-19 to M/s Shakti Developers Pvt. Ltd. to construct the skywalk on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) for a period of 30 years, for not completing the skywalk within the specified period.
The BBMP, before the Division Bench, had contended that there is no need for another skywalk, which was nearing completion, as there exists one nearby.
‘Can’t blow hot and cold’
However, the Bench comprising Chief Justice Prasanna B.Varale and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi passed the order while observing that the BBMP cannot blow hot and cold on requirement of another skywalk on the busy Mysore road when the study by the civic body had pointed out the need of two skywalks near satellite bus station. The Division Bench did not see any merit in the BBMP’s appeal.
The single judge had said that the BBMP was not affected commercially due to delay in completion but the delay is going to eat the profit to be made by the builder as it is on DBFOT for 30 years.
Moreover, the single judge, on perusing records, had found that there was no fault or delay on the part of the builder but all the cases for the delay was due to BBMP’s white topping of the Mysore road stretch, objection raised by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation for the location, etc.
