Mysuru: The Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in its bid to solve the growing land crunch and premium on land value has decided to opt for a vertical growth model instead of developing plots.

The group housing projects worth Rs. 250 crore proposed by the MUDA and which received ‘in principle’ approval from the State Government is stuck at the bureaucracy level.

“We have been instructed not to proceed with the projects until the rules of allotment were finalised,” a senior official in the MUDA said.

He said that the authority has secured in-principle approval for group housing schemes worth Rs. 250 crore and in all, 27 locations have been identified for this.

But MUDA has not ventured into housing project and had confined itself to plot development. This being the first foray into group housing, the State Government insisted that separate rules of allotment be drafted and submitted to it for approval before going ahead with the project.

“We submitted a draft proposal but the State government reverted to us suggesting changes and revision. Subsequently, we were instructed to coordinate with the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation and the National Housing Development Organisation. Based on their recommendations, a revised draft policy would be conceived before it is put up for discussion for final approval,” said the official.

Given the pace at which the proposals move in the government, MUDA officials are not confident of the rules being in place in the near future and hence are going slow on it. The authority’s decision to opt for group housing stemmed from the growing land crunch and premium on land value.

Hence, it decided to opt for a vertical growth model and instead of developing plots, it announced a group housing scheme at Srirampura, Vijayanagar 2nd and  3rd Stages, R.T. Nagar, Lalitadripura and other places in the city.

There are nearly 1 lakh pending applications before MUDA for sites and given the paucity of land for plot development and the need to curb horizontal expansion of Mysuru, the authority thought it fit to experiment with affordable group housing schemes which is now stuck.

Just as the group housing scheme has been grounded, the much-touted satellite township concept too has come to a grinding halt with no progress in the project. Sources in the MUDA said nearly 450 acres of land was identified for the purpose.

The authorities want to make farmers partners in development by acquiring their land, developing the same and surrender 50% of the sites to them (in lieu of compensation) so that they could sell them at the market rate. This would have fetched them more than what the MUDA could pay them as compensation and hence there was optimism of the project taking off.

But nearly three years since the announcement, the MUDA has only 50 acres of land and the project needs at least 100 acres before it can begin.

Meanwhile, MUDA Commissioner P.S. Kantharaju, speaking to Star of Mysore this noon, said that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) is ready and they have sent the same to the State Government. He added that the State Government has put three conditions and one among the condition is to form a policy framework, adopt it and then implement it.

He said since forming the policy framework is not feasible, MUDA has sought exemption of this condition and added that if the State government exempt this condition, MUDA will go ahead with the project.