About Electronic City
Maintenance of ECity
In 1997, Keonics handed over the maintenance of Electronic City to ELCIA (Electronic City Industries Association), formed by representatives from member companies, for effective local governance. KEONICS continues to approve the building plans and expansion activities. Dodda Thogur and Konappana Agrahara village Panchayats had been authorized to collect property taxes. Industries have been paying property taxes to Panchayats & maintenance chargs to ELCIA.
BBMP's attempt to include Electronic City
On 01 August 2012, BBMP ( Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) Council had passed a resolution to include Electronics City in its jurisdiction. The resolution read: Villages in and around Electronics City like Konappana Agrahara, Doddatugur, Gollahalli, Balaji Extension, Shikaripalya, Thirupalya, Neeladrinagar, Bettadasapura, Hulimangala, Govinda Shettypalya, Krishna Reddy Extension, Neo Town, Shanthipura, Veerasandra Industrial Area and Veerasandra will be merged under the BBMP’s jurisdiction.
The resolution was opposed by industries in Electronic City, who are paying lower taxes to the Panchayats than what they would have to pay to BBMP. The industries had requested to the Karnataka State Govt for an Industrial Township status to function autonomously.
Not being included in the BBMP limits has resulted in deprivation of Cauvery water to the resident ECitzens, when Cauvery Phase II Stage 4 was commissioned on 31 October 2012 to the areas added newly to BBMP.
Industrial Township Status
Electronic City has been granted Industrial Township status; A notification by the Urban Development Department has brought 903 acres and 11 guntas ( comprising Electronic City Phases I, II, III) under the E-City Industrial Township Area. A 10 member township authority will have administrative powers including collection of property tax: 5 members nominated by industries and 5 members from the Government departments of industries, town planning, urban development, urban planning etc. will have municipal powers to collect taxes, maintain the region and regulation & construction of buildings. Other functions: economic & social development, industrial / commercial water supply, solid waste management, environmental & ecological aspects, public amenites like street lighting, parking lots, bus stops, gardens and playgrounds. 30% of the property taxes collected by the township authority is to be remitted to the panchayats.
However BBMP is opposed to this autonomy, since BBMP ( garbage disposal), BWSSB ( water, sewage) and BESCOM ( power) will still have to provide services, while taxes would go to the industries.
Ref: Articles linked in ECity Press News
Neeladri Road
Neeladri Road sees high traffic between E-City and Bannerghatta Road at all hours. This road with high-rise apartments on either side, is home to lakhs of ECitizens; This road starts where the jurisdiction of ELCITA ends with Wipro Campus; The road is within the Dodda Toguru village limits which is not yet included in BBMP. GP had neglected this road, despite having collected property tax for 10 years; In March 2019, just ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Neeladri Road was tarred and covered rain water drains provided.
Ironically, the GP has demanded that Neeladri Road be scrapped and only the Togur Village be included in BBMP development projects. The GP reportedly claimed that Neeladri Road is an upscale area unlike Togur village; Also Togur GP has not utilized the property taxes to provide civic amenities to Neeladri Road.
Ref: Press report by The Hindu - 15 Sep 2015
