Bengaluru STRR (NH-948A) – Phase Status and Land-Buying Guide

Phase 2 of the STRR, the 56 km section that passes through the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Bannerghatta National Park (km 95.525 to km 138.0), is officially on hold. NHAI has confirmed this publicly. The alignment requires a 3.85 km elevated viaduct through the park's core zone plus ~2 km through the buffer (per Citizen Matters / NHAI feasibility), with a 28.5 m right-of-way, plus the diversion of 11 hectares of forest from the core zone and 5.7 hectares from the buffer zone. Forest clearance from the Forest Conservation Authority was still pending at the time of writing; MoEFCC had issued terms of reference but the final forest diversion approval had not been granted.

This affects buyers in the Anekal, Kanakapura, and south-western STRR corridor directly. The upside thesis for these localities is real: Phase 3 (western packages: Somakkanamutta to Kunigal, Kunigal to Thattekere, Thattekere to Bagganadoddi) is being executed ahead of Phase 2. But a buyer purchasing agricultural land in the Anekal-Attibele belt on the assumption that Phase 2 will be operational by a specific date is carrying regulatory risk that is not priced into current broker conversations.

The land title risk along the full STRR corridor is a separate and equally serious issue. The STRR passes through 331 villages. Agricultural land near STRR interchanges requires DC conversion before it can be used for residential or commercial development. A Gram Panchayat layout approval is not a substitute for DC conversion. Under Karnataka law, the Gram Panchayat has no authority to sanction a layout on unconverted agricultural land; any such approval is legally invalid and does not provide A-Khata status or bank loan eligibility.

The Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Rules, 2025,notified in September 2025 and finalized on 23 December 2025 after public consultation, modernised the conversion process but did not change the fundamental requirement: agricultural land must carry a valid DC conversion order before any non-agricultural use or layout development.

The practical rule for Bengaluru STRR land buying is this: proximity to an STRR interchange does not give agricultural land residential use rights. DC conversion does.

The STRR Planning Authority, set up by the Karnataka government in 2016, covers a planning area of 1,019 sq km across the 12 satellite towns. Within this jurisdiction, layout approvals flow through local planning authorities under BMRDA, including Anekal, Hoskote, Kanakapura, Nelamangala, and Ramanagara, not through Gram Panchayats. For Bengaluru STRR land buying, the approval chain to verify is: DC conversion order, local planning authority layout sanction, and RERA registration for plotted developments with 8 or more plots.

The four corridors with the strongest sourced investment rationale are Devanahalli (north), Hoskote (east), Doddaballapur (north-west), and Sarjapur (south-east). Devanahalli carries airport-led demand from Kempegowda International Airport plus the Aerospace Park and ITIR designation. The NH-44 expansion around Devanahalli links directly to the STRR Phase 1 operational section. Hoskote is the eastern terminus of operational Phase 1 and connects to the Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway (NE-7), making it a logistics and industrial hub. Doddaballapur benefits from both the operational STRR bypass and an established textile industry base. Godrej Properties acquired a 48-acre parcel near the STRR in this belt in 2025 for a plotted residential development with approximately 1.1 million sq ft of development potential. Sarjapur is the south-eastern node: an established IT residential market that gains from STRR decongesting the ORR.

Sarjapur is the most commonly misread corridor. Buyers price Sarjapur plots at STRR-connectivity valuations even though the relevant STRR section (Phase 3 southern package near Attibele and Anekal) is still under construction and the adjacent Phase 2 Bannerghatta section remains on hold. The ORR already serves Sarjapur directly. STRR adds a second connectivity layer once Phase 3 is complete, but that completion depends on resolution of the Bannerghatta clearance issue.