Sixty-one-year-old Jagadhamba is almost in tears. Property that her late husband Vishwanath built in 1994 is now being razed down, all for the sake of road widening by BBMP. Jagadhamba lives on Karkere Main Road in Jayanthi Nagar (North Bengaluru) with her family of two sons and two daughters. “What justice is this? This is our property. We don’t know what to do”, says Jagadhamba, as her voice drowns in the noise of the bull dozer at work.

Sixty-one-year-old Jagadhamba. 195 feet x 17 feet of her property, built in 1994, is being taken away for road widening. BBMP will issue a Development Rights Certificate to her. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal.

Her son Lakshmikanth V is more composed. A private developer, he explains that they were approached by BBMP to give up a part of our property for the widening of Karkere Main Road. The road that is currently 40 feet will be widened to 80 feet. Jagadhamba received a notice letter from BBMP on August 18th 2009 asking her to give up property of 195 feet in length and 17 feet in breadth, in return for which she can avail TDR or Transfer of Development Rights which is issued on what is known as Development Rights Certificate (DRC). Jagadhamba is also shouldering the burden of spending on the demolishing, so far shelling Rs 10,000 from her pocket.

As a part of BBMP’s drive to widen more than 85 roads in the city, the local body has been hoping to use TDR scheme to acquire land for the same. The BBMP issues a DRC to affected property owner, compensating for the loss of land (in square footage). Owners receive built-up area in addition to what they surrendered. The owner can use this to get extra square footage clearance while developing another property elsewhere in the city, or sell it in the market to developers and builders who can use it to exceed their allowed square footage.

For Karkere Main Road, a notice was issued in a city daily on July 29th 2009 along with a list of 20 roads notified for widening. Ramesh, a junior engineer with BBMP says this road was identified for widening since it connects many villages and is a major district road. Karkere Main Road leads to Devanahalli and Hoskote, among other places. “Work started around four to five months back. We have issued notices to 50 building owners and 250 vacant site owners for this. We are currently doing a survey for TDR”. Ramesh says work will be completed in another two months time.

Demolition ongoing at Jagadhamba's house on Karkere Main Road. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal.

On the same road is N L Chaudhary, owner of Manji Pawn Brokers. He lost about 17 feet of his property (shop on ground floor and house on first floor) to road widening. He rebuilt his shop about two months back which is now just 20 feet in length, as opposed to the earlier 37 feet. Ask him what compensation he has received for loss of property and he says, “They (BBMP) said they’ll give money for this. I don’t know when they will”. He wasn’t aware of DRC either.

Lakshmikanth, on the other hand, is aware of DRC, but doesn’t know when the BBMP will hand it over to him.

Manji Pawn shop. Owner N L Chaudhary says he lost about 17 feet of his property and is not aware of a Development Rights Certificate he is entitled to. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal.

This seems to be the basic problem with regard to BBMP’s plans to implement the TDR scheme. While for people like Chaudhary who has lost personal property, the very concept of TDR is alien, for Lakshmikanth, the question is when will BBMP hand over the DRC to him. Furthermore, realtors and developers, who are potential buyers of DRCs do not have a clue about where to purchase them.

Says Realtor Ajit Prakash, MD and CEO of Sana group, “Should there be an opportunity, we'll certainly use it (DRC). But I don't know who has TDR. If that information is available, as part of the  website, then I can check. It can be there area-wise with names and contact details”. He adds that it would also be difficult for individuals to sell it as they would not know who the interested people in the market are.

Suresh Hari of Vishal Promoters agrees. “It has to become more popular. A via-media solution needs to be found. TDR should be made attractive. I’m sure the government will look into it”, says Hari, who is also the Secretary of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), Karnataka.

BBMP’s Chief Engineer (Major Roads) T N Chikkarayappa says they are working on this and shortly a system will be introduced, where property owners with a DRC can register in the BBMP zonal offices. Those who are interested in purchasing a DRC can also register in these offices, he adds. So far, there seems to be no plan to set up a system online, possibly through the BBMP website.

Prakash also asks if the DRC can be split and sold to two different buyers or used separately. Chikkarayappa says this can be done.

BBMP has dispatched over 6000 TDR forms to their zonal offices, to be sent to citizens whose land has to be acquired for roadwidening. Of these, about 100 citizens have sent back the forms to claim TDR, say official sources in the BBMP. The source also adds that the BBMP has issued 27 DRCs in turn, most of them on Race Course Road, out of which five or six have been sold.

Vaishnavi Vittal is a staff journalist with Citizen Matters.

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