Covid Rs 300 crore brutal blow to BBMP

Bengaluru: The spread of the novel Coronavirus has dealt a brutal blow to the revenues of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

In the last five months, the BBMP had witnessed fewer new building plan approvals, Completion Certificate (CC) and Occupation Certificate (OC). According to reports, BBMP has witnessed only 13 new building approvals for the year 2020-21 as against over 130 new building plan approvals in the previous year.

More than 30 to 40 per cent construction workers are keeping off from work sites due to fear of contracting Covid-19 infection and most of them have returned to their villages. Even contractors are not keen on taking up new projects. This, in turn, is hurting the revenues of BBMP. "Most developers are racing against time to complete delayed projects, avoid cost escalation and besides likely penalties in case of further delays. We have witnessed only 13 in new building plan approvals which is quite less compared to the previous years," BBMP senior official explained.

Building plan approvals, OCs and CCs are the second major revenue source for the BBMP, after property tax. Each year, the revenue generated from this source is pegged at around Rs 300 crore. But the corporation has witnessed only 13 new building plan approval, 20 Completion Certificate (CC) and 28 Occupation Certificate (OC) for the year 2020-21 which are worth only Rs 37 crore.

"In the backdrop of ongoing pandemic, construction work is getting impacted. Also, many developers are providing all the necessary support to workers, from undertaking precautionary measures such as avoiding group formation, providing sanitisers and face masks, and fumigating the site and labour camps, to providing medical assistance.

But, a large number of workers are not keen on returning to the site due to which most of the projects and residential buildings have been halted," said Kiran, a developer.