Peenya industrialists seek their own township

Y Maheswara Reddy

Bengaluru: Upset over the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP)’ apathy in providing better roads, footpaths and streetlights in their area, industrialists are demanding that the state government establish the much-delayed Peenya Industrial Township Authority (PITA) on the lines of the Electronics City Township Authority (ELCITA).

Peenya Industrial Area, billed as one of the largest industrial areas in South Asia, is spread over 48-square kilometres and houses around 10,000 micro small and medium enterprises (MSEMs) providing employment to lakhs of people. “We arranged a meeting with our past presidents Monday evening to discuss infrastructure-related issues and the delay in establishing Peenya Industrial Township Authority. Roads are in poor condition,’’ said Peenya Industries Association secretary Shiva Kumar R.

Speaking with News Trail, R Prithviraj, former president of Peenya Industries Association said that despite efforts being made to set up Peenya Industrial Township Authority, the state government did not take measures in this regard. “B S Yediyurappa, the then chief minister, had announced Rs 100-crore grant for establishing Peenya Industrial Township Authority while presenting the State Budget for 2020-21 but till date the state government did nothing for this. We are not authorized to demand the grant since the government has not established the Peenya Industrial Township Authority,’’ said Prithviraj.