Bengaluru, Nov 2 (PTI) Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Monday directed officials to digitise the Transferable Development Rights system to facilitate road widening and infrastructure development in the city, officials said.
The entire process, from application and verification to certificate issuance and subsequent transactions, will be brought online, they said.
Chairing a meeting with senior officials at Vikas Soudha here, the minister said that road widening and construction of new roads were essential to finding long-term solutions to Bengaluru’s worsening traffic congestion.
However, the existing Transferable Development Rights (TDR) mechanism, intended to facilitate land acquisition for infrastructure projects, had remained largely dependent on physical files, with inadequate tracking mechanisms and limited transparency, he said.
Pointing out that the existing system had created considerable dissatisfaction among property owners and the public, Gowda observed that the absence of a proper tracking mechanism had undermined confidence in the TDR process.
According to him, road widening and the construction of new roads are urgent and unavoidable requirements if Bengaluru is to find lasting solutions to its growing traffic congestion. However, the TDR system, which is meant to facilitate land acquisition for infrastructure development, has continued to function through paper-based files for years.
"The lack of proper tracking and transparency has resulted in public dissatisfaction and a loss of confidence in the system,” he said.
According to an official statement, the Minister directed officials to introduce end-to-end digitisation of the process, covering the initial recording of road and property details, verification at every stage and the eventual issuance of TDR certificates.
The reform, he said, must remove existing bottlenecks and restore the confidence of both property owners and the public.
Gowda said the proposed digital platform will go beyond the online processing and approval of TDR applications. The purchase and sale of TDR certificates, as well as their final utilisation, will also be brought under the same online system.
With this reform, citizens will be able to track the status and progress of their applications online, without having to make repeated visits to government offices or depend on intermediaries, he said.
The minister said the new system would significantly reduce unnecessary delays, prevent undue interference by middlemen and minimise the inconvenience faced by property owners and applicants.
Emphasising the larger significance of the reform, Gowda said a transparent, efficient and citizen-friendly TDR mechanism would help restore public confidence while making land acquisition for infrastructure projects smoother and faster.
The digitised system is expected to facilitate the acquisition of land required for major road infrastructure projects, helping Bengaluru accelerate road widening and new road construction to improve urban mobility, it said.
The reform is aimed at making TDR a more accessible, reliable and transparent mechanism for both property owners and the government, while removing a key procedural hurdle to the city's infrastructure development, it added.
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)