Overview
- The state has begun land-acquisition steps for the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township, with a May 25 final notification covering an initial 498.34 acres and further notifications planned by the end of June.
- On June 14 the BJP and JD(S) separately wrote to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi asking him to halt further acquisition until more than 3,500 objections from roughly 25 villages are formally heard.
- Union minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has publicly accused Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar of favouring real-estate interests and described the plan as a land grab, while Shivakumar says the project is needed to ease Bengaluru’s pressure and says the Prime Minister praised it.
- A recently released finance-department Cabinet note questions using a public-private partnership model for the township, recommends an engineering-procurement-construction approach, and flags large HUDCO loan plans and procurement risks.
- Opponents warn the roughly 7,481-acre proposal risks farming livelihoods and local ecology — citing claims such as about 600,000 litres a day of milk supply from the belt and widespread tree loss — and critics point to the project’s roots in older contested plans like the BMIC episode.