Bengaluru: The long-delayed Peripheral Ring Road (PRR), now rebranded as the Bengaluru Business Corridor (BBC), has been given a fresh push, with the state govt setting 2029 as its new completion deadline.The 73-km corridor, which will connect Tumakuru Road to Hosur Road via Ballari Road and Old Madras Road, is being positioned as a key infrastructure project to ease congestion on Bengaluru’s arterial roads. The Rs 27,000-crore project will be financed through a loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation.The govt’s renewed push comes amid mounting pressure to address the city’s worsening traffic crisis and repeated questions over why the project has remained stuck since its notification in 2007. “It is a project that got caught between policy and protest; while policy pertained to land acquisition challenges, protest was by landowners alleging the compensation was not adequate,” said a former minister.In fact, the project started chugging forward only after former IAS officer LK Atheeq took over as the chairman of the project a few months ago. Around 2,560 acres are required for the corridor, but compensation disputes have triggered sustained opposition from farmers and landowners. The conflict largely stems from the Bangalore Development Authority choosing to acquire land under its own Act instead of the more recent 2013 land acquisition law titled ‘Right to fair compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act’, which reportedly offers higher compensation and rehabilitation benefits. Farmer groups argue that the compensation being offered, based on guidance values frozen since 2016, is far below market rates. “We will not get even a fraction of the actual value of our land,” said a landowner from Kodathi, pointing to stark disparities between official compensation and prevailing market prices.Meanwhile, the project alignment also underwent changes, and PRR obtained the environmental clearance only in 2023. In Oct 2025, the cabinet cleared the proposal for the business corridor in which the previous design of 100-metre width was changed to 65 metres. The remaining 35-metre width along the corridor was decided to be used for compensating land losers and to carve out commercial plots.Subsequently, the govt came up with five compensation options for land losers: Ex-gratia cash compensation, Transferable Development Rights (TDR), grant of Floor Area Ratio (FAR), commercial sites along the corridor, residential sites in Shivaram Karanth Layout or residential layouts developed near the corridor.While BDA has been posting photographs with some farmers accepting the negotiated compensation rate, the PRR Farmers and Landowners Association has rejected all the five options. Association’s president B Srinivasa, who owns land in Mavallipura, said the options of TDR and FAR are beneficial only for real estate developers and not farmers. “The guidance values in 74 villages have not been revised since 2016 at the behest of BDA. For Shivaram Karanth Layout, BDA offered Rs 4.7 crore per acre, but only Rs 3.3 crore for PRR,” he said, criticising BDA’s cash compensation formula.Authorities are now attempting a phased rollout, beginning with a 23-km stretch between Madavara and Yelahanka (Package-1). Officials say about 50% of land for this stretch has been acquired. “We will proceed package-wise. Each stretch can function independently,” said BBC chairman LK Atheeq. To move forward with tenders, at least 80% of land must be secured —something the agency is yet to achieve.However, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar seems confident. He announced in the ongoing legislature session that the project would be completed at any cost whatever the challenges are.Inset – 1Why BBC matters for tech capital?If completed, the corridor is expected to:*Divert heavy traffic away from the congested Outer Ring Road* Improve airport and inter-city connectivity*Unlock new urban and commercial zones along the periphery Inset – 2Linking places (PRR –1) Length: 73 km Route: Tumakuru Road → Ballari Road → Old Madras Road → Hosur Road Estimated Cost: Rs 27,000 crore Funding: Loan from HUDCO Land required: 2,500+ acres Trees to be felled: 33,000 Current status: Land acquisition under way New deadline: 2029Inset – 3Hurdles for two decades*Land acquisition dispute: Farmers want compensation under the 2013 law; BDA is using its own Act*Compensation gap: Guidance values frozen since 2016 have reduced payout calculations*Legal challenges: Courts are hearing petitions on whether the project has lapsed*Alignment changes: Revised routes have brought new land parcels into acquisition*Scale of the project: Acquiring over 2,500 acres in a rapidly urbanising region remains a massive challenge
