Bengaluru, 22 May

A day before Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lays the foundation stone for an international stadium in Anekal, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy on Friday flagged major ecological concerns over the project.

Chalavadi said in a statement on X the 80,000-seat stadium being built at an estimated cost of Rs 900 crore was on an ecologically sensitive zone.

“Giving permission for such huge concrete works in the Eco-Sensitive Zone, which is the lifeline of Bengaluru city, is an atrocity on nature,” he stated.

Alleging that the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) had acquired the land to build houses, he said: “It is a strict law that the land acquired in the name of the intended housing construction cannot be used for any other purpose for any reason”. He accused the government of duping farmers into providing their land, accusing the Congress of “capitalising on farmers who were unaware of the law”.

“It is highly condemnable that housing projects that were supposed to provide shelter to the poor are being thrown into the wind and real estate scams are being spread in the name of a stadium,” he added.

Chalavadi demanded that the State government immediately halt the project and give the land back to the farmers.

Earlier, bodies such as the Karnataka Rashtra Samithi (KRS) had noted that the project would severely impact the Bannerghatta National Park and nearby areas.