The Karnataka Government on Tuesday made a statement in the Assembly that the Bangalore Race Course would be shifted in due course to a new location.

Though successive governments in Karnataka have been planning to shift the race course to the outskirts since the 60’s, they have failed to execute their plans due to one reason or the other. The latest government in Karnataka, led by B S Yeddyurappa has officially announced that they intend to shift the race course from the existing location and build in its place, a multi-story underground parking facility. The race course is located in the heart of the city and the total extent of land is less than 80 acres. The periphery of the race course has shrunk in recent times due to road expansion which has resulted in more than 200 stables being demolished to make way for road expansion work.

The Karnataka government has decided to shift the Race Course to a new location, Public Works Minister C M Udasi said on Tuesday. However, the new location has not yet been finalized, he said during question hour in the Legislative assembly. Since the 60’s, the plan to shift the race course has been in the air but the Bangalore Turf Club has resisted the move successfully helped by circumstances because successive governments did not last enough to complete its plan. The minister was responding to a query from R Roshan Baig (Congress), during question hour in the Assembly. Udasi, standing in for Chief Minister who was away in Delhi, said the Government proposed to build underground parking lot in the area where the race course is now located.

However, Baig urged the Government not to build any structure at the race course and to retain the area, as an “open space” and stressed the need to ensure that it was not handed over to private builders to put up “concrete structures”.

It may be recalled that the government had issued a stern warning to Bangalore Turf Club to sign the lease agreement immediately or their activities would be brought to a standstill. The turf club which had resisted signing the lease agreement which specifies that they should vacate the premises by December, 2008, has however, succumbed to the pressure and has now decided to sign the lease agreement. The turf club however is bargaining for time and new land in order to build the infrastructure. In the past, government had identified more than 200 acres of land for this purpose, about 20 kilometers from Bangalore which has now become prime area as the new international airport has come up in the same route.

For its own good, the turf club needs to shift to a bigger area as the present premises is cramped and inadequate. The BTC members are adamant on any move to shift because of fear of losing their importance. There have been suggestions from various quarters that BTC should build a new race course with cooperation from the government by way of tax concession and roping in new members at a premium price. At present, the turf club consists of 350 members and new members are elected by the general body on the death of the existing members. If there are five vacancies, elections are conducted to elect the new members. In the event of there being fewer vacancies, no elections are held that year but the succeeding year, the vacancies are filled up by way of elections, irrespective of the number. At present, those aspiring to become members are required to spend enormous amounts of money by way of hosting parties and appeasing the members’ ego by all sorts of aggrandizement.

There have been unsuccessful attempts to get the turf club to increase the membership through a governmental order. BTC is a deemed company under the Companies Act. Becoming a member of the turf club is considered more difficult than winning any other form of election as the captive electorate does not allow any outsider to slip in unless of course he is supported by the power groups and spends enormous amounts of money in hosting lavish parties. The members pay a paltry amount of Rs 250 as subscription per year and according to the report submitted by the Karnataka Racing Commission, the members stood to enjoy benefits worth more than Rs 20,000 per year.