Page 31 - Bengaluru

Bengaluru cafe explosion is bomb blast, will find those behind it: DGP

Describing the explosion at the city's popular eatery Rameshwaram Cafe on Friday as a "bomb blast", Karnataka DGP Alok Mohan on Friday said investigations are on and the police will find those who are behind it. "At 1 PM, a bomb blast occurred at the hotel (cafe), nine people are injured, and no one is serious. We are investigating. FSL (forensic) teams have come and are checking. City police commissioner and other officers are at the spot. We will certainly identify who did it," Mohan, who visited the spot said. Speaking to reporters here, he said no one has suffered serious injuries and the injured -- both staff and customers -- are being treated in hospital. Asked whether an improvised explosive device (IED) was used for the blast, he said, "We are checking. Let's not say anything now itself. The FSL team has come and they are checking. Once they collect (samples from the spot), we will examine." The DGP said he has spoken to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister G .

Probe on to ascertain cause, nature of explosion in Bengaluru cafe: CM

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said investigations are on to ascertain the cause and nature of the explosion at popular eatery Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru on Friday, and added that it might have been caused by an "improvised explosive device". He said those involved will be found and strict action will be taken against them. "According to the information I have got, after 12 PM someone placed a bag and went. Investigations are going on, Siddaramaiah said, adding that all the injured persons are out of danger. Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, he said, "CCTV and other things are being examined. We have come to know about someone placing a bag. It is said to be an improvised explosive blast. We have to see, the investigations are on." Asked whether it was a terrorist act, the CM said, it is not known and investigations are on. Police are at the spot and he has asked the Home Minister also to visit the spot. "It was not a large-scale blast, it was an improvised ..

Shapoorji Pallonji eyes Rs 500 cr revenue from 180 luxury units in B'luru

Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate on Thursday launched more than 180 luxury homes in Bengaluru with a revenue potential of around Rs 500 crore. In a statement, the company said it has launched 'Sequoia', the last tower at its project Parkwest 2.0 in Binnypet, Bengaluru. The project Parkwest 2.0 has a total saleable area of over 18.4 lakh square feet. The company will develop over 180 luxury apartments in this last tower, having a saleable area of 4.3 lakh square feet and "presenting a revenue potential of nearly Rs 500 crore". Venkatesh Gopalakrishna, MD & CEO of Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate said, "Sequoia, the last tower at Parkwest 2.0, is a testament to our meticulous planning and unwavering dedication to craftsmanship." Bengaluru is one of the major real estate markets in India. As per the data compiled by housing brokerage firm, PropTiger, the sales of residential properties rose 44 per cent last year to 44,002 units from 30,467 units during 2022. The new supply of housing

Sitharaman flays Cong MP on demand for separate nation for southern states

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has decried Congress MP D K Suresh's statement that the southern states will be forced to demand for a separate nation due to the alleged injustice in the release of central grants to them. Insisting that "the central government has no role to play except for obeying the Finance Commission, Sitharaman said the states must sit with the Commission and highlight the weightage that will help them get the grants." "If southern states...I don't want to club them as southern states...each one has its own strengths and it is also now getting into those very, very dangerous threshold of 'Southern states together'. We will have '...' (separate nation)," the finance minister said during an interactive event - 'The Indian Express Adda'- here on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the Bengaluru Rural MP Suresh said the southern states will be forced to demand for a separate nation if the alleged 'injustice' was not rectified. He had claimed that taxes collec

Bengaluru tax payers are giving us buoyancy: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday hailed Bengaluru tax payers for their contributions in building a strong and 'Viksit Bharat', and said the Department of Revenue is running its entire national faceless income tax assessment scheme from Karnataka's capital city. Speaking after laying the foundation stone for the upcoming complex HONGIRANA for Income Tax officers and staff here, she said the tax payers of Bengaluru have been absolutely giving us the buoyancy, and thanked all individual and corporate taxpayers in this region for making sure for building a strong and 'Viksit Bharat'. "Your contribution is relentless. There has never been a dip. So thank you very much Bengaluru for keeping that momentum up", she said. Sitharaman also emphasised the investments that the Central government is making in Bengaluru. She noted that the Government has brought about the entire faceless system for income tax assessment and ease of doing business to ensure that tax assessee

Tata Housing sells residential plots worth Rs 650 crore in Bengaluru

Realty firm Tata Housing has sold plots worth Rs 650 crore in its recently launched residential project in Bengaluru. In a statement, the company on Friday said it has sold all inventories in the first phase of its project, Raagam, achieving revenue of over Rs 650 crore within one week of its launch. "With 576 plots sold and a total area of 9 lakh square feet, the project's overwhelming response reflects the robust demand for premium residential offerings in Bengaluru's real estate market," it said. The project is part of township 'Tata Carnatica' in Devanahalli, North Bengaluru. Tata Housing Development Company Ltd is a subsidiary of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd. Tata Housing currently has more than 33 projects with a total development potential of over 51 million square feet spread across major cities in India, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Tata and Tata Housing are registered trademarks of Tata Sons Private Ltd.

K'taka Assembly passes bill slashing penalty on property tax in Bengaluru

The Karnataka Assembly has passed a bill to slash the penalty on property tax in Bengaluru city limits by 50 per cent. The bill - Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Amendment Bill 2024 - was tabled in the Assembly by Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who holds the Bengaluru Development portfolio and was passed on Tuesday. "With the passing of this Amendment Bill, the penalty amount is halved, saving Bengalureans a whopping Rs 2,700 crore. The BBMP will be able to collect penalties worth Rs 1,000 crore," a statement issued by Shivakumar's office said. This important amendment will benefit around 13 to 15 lakh people in Bengaluru city including 5.51 lakh taxpayers, five to seven lakh people outside the property tax bracket and three lakh partial property taxpayers, it added. Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the BJP would oppose this bill as it would lead to large-scale corruption. The Amendment Bill has a provision to give a special rebate to the poor. Governme

Tailwinds may support momentum in residential space: Brigade Enterprises MD

Shankar talks about the company's strategic business initiatives, meticulous product development, and expansion plans

Target for Ujjivan Small Finance Bank: 40% secured loan portfolio in 3 yrs

The bank's capital adequacy ratio saw an impact of 80 basis points after the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) decision to increase the risk weight on personal, unsecured, and other loans

Arvind SmartSpaces sells 220 residential plots in Bengaluru for Rs 160 cr

Realty firm Arvind SmartSpaces Ltd on Monday said it has sold over 220 units in a residential plotted development project in Bengaluru for more than Rs 160 crore. In a regulatory filing, the company informed that "it has sold out the entire inventory released for sale in the 1st phase of its residential plotted development project, Arvind Orchards in Devanahalli, Bengaluru, within 7 hours of launch." "It consisted of more than 220 units valued at over Rs 160 crore. The project is housed under HDFC Platform 2," the company said. Built on around 120-year old legacy of the Lalbhai Group, and established in 2008, Ahmedabad-based Arvind SmartSpaces is one of the leading real estate firms in the country.

Indian GCC model changing from execution-driven to taking ownership

Indian GCCs have become "value amplifiers" for their global headquarters

Properties in Bengaluru to get digital ownership document: CM Siddaramaiah

The Karnataka government will embark on an ambitious project of digitising property tax records of all 20 lakh properties in Bengaluru and issue digital e-Khata (legal document issued to property owners) from fiscal year 2024-25, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in his budget speech on Friday. Noting that the state capital was headed towards a record' tax collection of Rs 4,300 crore in the current fiscal, which is Rs 1000 crore more than 2022-23, Siddaramaiah said the target in 2024-25 will be Rs 6,000 crore. This target of Rs 6,000 crore revenue will be achieved by preventing leakages in the tax collection system, he said. Siddaramaiah said additional non-tax resources of Rs 2,000 crore will be mobilised through revised advertisement policies and premium Floor Area Ratio (FAR) policy from this fiscal year. FAR is a formula based on the building's construction area and total floor area that is usable. The Chief Minister said augmentation of resources, reducing traffic congestion,

Warehousing space demand in B'luru, Chennai, Hyderabad down 5%: Vestian

Leasing of warehousing spaces in three major southern cities -- Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai -- fell 5 per cent to 10.2 million square feet during the last year on subdued demand, according to Vestian. During the 2022 calendar year, the total leasing of warehousing space in these three cities stood at 10.7 million square feet. Third-party logistics firms, engineering & manufacturing companies, and e-commerce players take warehousing spaces on lease and are major demand drivers. Real estate consultant Vestian data showed that the share of these three southern cities fell to 27 per cent in 2023 from 34 per cent in the previous year. Across seven major cities, the leasing of warehousing and logistics spaces grew 21 per cent to 37.8 million square feet in 2023 from 31.2 million square feet in the previous year. Among cities, the demand in Bengaluru fell to 3.6 million square feet from 4.1 million square feet. Hyderabad too witnessed a fall at 3.1 million square feet as against .

Akasa Air to cancel 4 Mumbai-Bengaluru flights daily from Feb 15-Mar 30

Akasa Air on Tuesday said it will be cancelling four flights daily between the city and Bengaluru following government guidelines issued to reduce congestion at the Mumbai airport. The civil aviation ministry has asked Mumbai airport operator MIAL to cut the number of scheduled flights and also restrict private jet operations for longer hours, according to reports. In a statement, an Akasa Air spokesperson said it will be rationalising network with respect to flights operated from Mumbai. "Flight operations of airlines to/from Mumbai are expected to be impacted with guidelines being implemented to reduce runway congestion at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. "... we have to rationalise our network resulting in cancellation of flights QP 1374 & QP 1367 (Mumbai to Bengaluru) and QP 1362 & QP 1366 (Bengaluru to Mumbai) between February 15 to March 30," the statement said. The airline is communicating to the passengers about the flight cancellations and is giving .

Bengaluru begins testing new adaptive Japanese traffic signal tech

The MODERATO tech allows traffic signals to change and adapt according to real-time traffic demands automatically

Sumadhura Group leases warehousing space to Zomato in Bengaluru

Sumadhura Logistics Park marks the company's entry into the ever-expanding logistics sector, catering to the growing demand for top-notch warehousing solutions in Bengaluru and surrounding areas

Zomato leases its largest warehousing space in the country in Bengaluru

The warehousing space spans 300,000 square feet and is located at Bengaluru's Hoskote

Trying to complete Chennai-Bengaluru greenfield expressway by Dec: Gadkari

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the Chennai-Bengaluru greenfield expressway was likely to be completed by December this year. Responding to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Gadkari urged the governments of Tamil Nadu and Kerala to help the National Highway Authority of India in making available construction material such as aggregates and fly ash for the projects in the respective states. "I am giving confidence to the House ... that we are trying our level best to complete the highway before December. The distance between Chennai and Bengaluru can be covered within two hours," the minister said. Gadkari said he had also spoken to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and conveyed to him the problems faced by the NHAI in the construction of highways in the state. "I do not want to politicise the issue. But without getting aggregate, without getting all the things that we need for the road construction, how is it possible for us to complete the road," ..

Karnataka CM reaches out to people with mass grievance redressal programme

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday held grievance redressal programme "Janaspandana", reaching out directly to people to address their concerns and issues with promise of speedy solutions, in front of the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of state legislature and secretariat here. The Chief Minister had held a similar exercise on November 27 last year at his home office 'Krishna'. In what is billed to be the first such mass grievance redressal programme held on the premises of Vidhana Soudha, department-wise stalls were set up at the venue to help the aggrieved citizens, who came to seek redressal of their issues. Earlier Chief Ministers have held such events elsewhere like the home office and official residence. Siddaramaiah instructed the officials to dispose of the applications received from the people, who came from different parts of the State, within three months, official sources said. The Chief Minister was seen personally meeting the people with grievances, especia

Special court directs Bengaluru police to book case against Shivakumar

A special court here has directed the city police to book a criminal case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar along with the Congress State IT cell head B R Naidu for allegedly using a morphed image of a protest by BJP leaders. The BJP leaders had participated in a demonstration against the recent arrest of Srikanth Pujari, a Kar Sevak, who had taken part in the 1992 Babri mosque demolition agitation. The BJP demonstrators held placards which read: "I'm also a Kar Sevak, arrest me too." The Congress IT Cell allegedly morphed the writing on the placards making it look like a confessional statement of scams and other irregularities and posted them on social media. The same was shared from the social media handle of Shivakumar, also the Karnataka Congress chief. The BJP Legal Cell state convener Yogendra Hodaghatta lodged a complaint with the Special Court for MPs/MLAs stating that the post used a false document to create enmity between communities. The court direc