Malleswaram’s own twin towers

Bustling Malleswaram will get two skyscrapers — a 32-storeyed residential complex and a 27-storeyed commercial complex — adjacent to Mantri Square and Sampige Road Metro Station. The twin towers will be 112.9 metres and 100.85 metres tall respectively.

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which had withheld approval for the joint building plan submitted by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) and Mantri Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., finally sanctioned the plan on August 22.

With the approval, Mantri, whose 5.04 acres of land was acquired by BMRCL for Sampige Road Metro Station, can complete not only the metro station with two basements, one ground and one upper floor, but also build a residential tower with three basements, one ground and 32 floors, and a commercial/office tower with three basements, one ground and 27 upper floors.

The metro station will be known as Mantri Square Sampige Road Station by virtue of the PPP agreement between BMRCL and Mantri.

The total built up area of all the three structures would come up to 1,77,885.10 sq mt on 58,836.91 sq mt of land. Mantri has to leave 12,286 sq mt of land in the acquired area for the formation of a 24-mt-wide four-lane road for the use of occupants and visitors of the residential and commercial towers.

While residents of Malleswaram are already crying hoarse over the traffic logjam owing to Mantri Square abutting Sampige Road, traffic experts feel that the twin towers might not impact the traffic flow in the vicinity. M.N. Sreehari, traffic engineering expert, said the 24-mt-wide road should take care of the traffic emanating from the twin towers. The road will be open to the public after the construction of the metro station, he said.

ALLEGED ENCROACHMENT

BBMP had been refusing approval on the ground that Mantri Developers had encroached upon 2 acres 11 guntas of government land. It could obtain transferable development rights (TDR) after handing over this encroached land to BBMP for the construction of a road, the palike had argued.

While the government had been directing the BBMP to approve the plan, the previous Commissioner had asked the government to rescind the orders since Mantri was found to have encroached upon the land conclusively by the Survey and Settlement Department. On a writ petition by Mantri, a single judge of the High Court had on April 15 directed the palike to approve the plan. The palike’s appeal against this order was disposed of by a division bench on June 18, directing BBMP to approve the plan. The court had said Mantri could be compelled to surrender the TDR if the court [in a separate pending case] finds that it had actually encroached government land. Following this, BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana ordered approval of the plan on July 26 and Joint Director (Town Planning) approved the plan on August 22.