Bengaluru: The construction of office spaces for the newly constituted Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and five municipal corporations will begin on Nov 1. Deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar Tuesday said the govt has already identified locations for the offices and is inviting expressions of interest (EOI) for the constructions.“In some places, we have 5 acres, others 4 acres, and another 2 acres. But all these offices will be constructed in a homogenous traditional manner with the best architectural designs to be derived from public inputs,” he said. Shivakumar, who is also Bengaluru development minister, added the architectural plan has been opened to the public, with a prize of Rs 5 lakh for the chosen design.He also announced a competition to choose logos for the GBA and each of the five corporations, and added that the names of the new corporations will retain ‘Bengaluru’ as an affix.Shivakumar assured that there will be no reallocation of tax collections between corporations. “The only way is to have the govt provide assistance to those corporations which will have a deficit. We cannot touch one corporation’s funds for another as it will encroach upon the 74th amendment of the constitution,” he added.The DCM said the new commissioners for each corporation assumed charge and opened fresh bank accounts under the new names. “All tax amounts will start getting remitted to those new accounts from tomorrow onwards,” he said. On the issuance of fresh khatas by the new corporations, he added that there may be a few days of settling down for the new Palikes, but eventually, they will individually issue them.Shivakumar clarified that the state govt will not add new areas to the GBA jurisdiction or the municipal corporations. “As per the present structure, we are not touching new areas to be added to the GBA or the five municipal corporations. Adding new areas will require an additional delimitation process and other legal remedies. However, the five new corporations will grow with newer areas within the Bengaluru urban district,” he added.Highlighting potential future expansion, Shivakumar said: “From the airport to Magadi Road and from Tumakuru Road to Hosur Road, a lot of areas have virtually become part of Bengaluru, and the same will be considered in the future for expansion. However, no municipal corporation will exceed more than 150 wards in the city.” He added that the new corporations have been divided so that, as per the 2011 census, each ward will have a base population of 20,000, which may increase to 40,000 or more.
