KRS Nisarga residential layout, to be developed at Yelwal on a 419-acre plot at an estimated cost of Rs. 589 crore will have 6,233 sites and 217 houses, said Housing Minister V.Somanna here yesterday.

Speaking after laying the foundation stone for the KRS Nisarga Housing Board project near Yelachanahalli in Yelwal Hobli on the outskirts of city, Somanna said Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) will distribute more than 23,000 sites to shelterless families in the next three months besides developing 50,000 sites in Bangalore.

Stating that Rs. 1,960 crore had been spent to develop 3,506 houses and distribute 32,000 sites, he added that the State Government will increase monetary assistance under Ashraya Housing Scheme to Rs. 1 lakh in the ensuing budget and added that KHB would name the layout near Bidadi after Subhash Chandra Bose and the layout with 50,000 sites in Jigani, Anekal, after Swami Vivekananda.

He said 8,600 sites in Suryanagari 3rd Stage, Bangalore will be inaugurated on Jan. 26 and a residential layout will also be formed at Rayasandra near Kanakapura to meet the needs of thousands of applicants dreaming of owning a site, adding that each land loser will get a free site.

To avoid touts, compensation to land losers will be directly credited to their account and a 20x30 site will be given free to those who lose less than one acre land besides permitting them to apply for other sites, he said and called upon farmers to sell the land around KHB Colony to KHB itself which would result in the infrastructure developed by KHB not being misused by private land developers.

Somanna also said that Mysore had got a major project after a gap of 33 years in the form of KRS Nisarga, and added that Bangalore Water Supply and Sewage Board (BWS&SB) has been authorised to provide drinking water, underground drainage and other facilities at a cost of Rs. 23 crore. He emphasised that KHB was not a profit-making body as it has developed layouts borrowing loans at 13% interest rates and had remitted money to the accounts of land losers instead of paying to brokers.

KHB Chairman G.T.Devegowda, speaking on the occasion, disclosed that Mysore would get another mega project within a year.

District Minister S.A. Ramdas said that the Government would come out with an innovative housing scheme for those living in rented houses for decades in Mysore and added that an MCC survey had revealed that 48,500 families are living in rented houses while thousands of families own more than one site.

Ramdas also said that Rotary and Lions Clubs had come forward to fund mentally challenged and disabled who get shops under government schemes.

MLC Siddaraju, KHB Commissioner Jayaram, Director Raju, ZP President Siddaveerappa, ZP member Bhagya Shivamurthy, TP President Vijayalakshmi, BJP Dist. General Secretary Hemanth Kumar and others were present.