Bengaluru is to become the site of India’s first township driven by artificial intelligence, with the state government pressing ahead with the Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT) at Bidadi. On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar stated that nearly 9,000 acres would be reshaped into a modern city, designed so that people might work, live, and find leisure within the same bounds.
Situated some 30 kilometres from Bengaluru itself, the new township is planned as the state’s second hub of commerce, with over 2,000 acres reserved for enterprises devoted to artificial intelligence and related fields, according to Indian Express. A business corridor, 300 metres wide, will run through the township, tying it directly to STRR, NH-209, NH-275, and NICE Road, so that both residents and industries remain well linked to the wider region.
While addressing farmers and district officials in Ramanagara, Shivakumar gave assurances that the undertaking would be guided by openness and fairness. He pledged that landowners would receive due payment, and that the process would not stray outside the law. “This project will move forward with fair compensation and within the legal framework,” he said, as reported by PTI. “I will not repeat mistakes of the past. I am not ready to go to jail like former CM Yediyurappa by denotifying lands.”
Global Investment and Job Creation Opportunities in AI Hub
The township is expected to draw investment from abroad, bring in large corporations, and open its doors to smaller firms in technology, while creating hundreds of thousands of posts in information technology, artificial intelligence, and allied services. Shivakumar emphasised that employment must favour the state’s own people, with training centres to be built so that young men and women of Karnataka may be ready for industries shaped by artificial intelligence.
By placing new centres of trade and labour at Bidadi, the scheme is also intended to relieve Bengaluru’s clogged roads, aided by ring routes, highways, and plans that allow workers to live close to their places of employment. Officials added that more than 1,100 acres have been marked out for gardens and open grounds, making it one of the greenest townships of its kind.
The plan was first spoken of in 2006 under H.D. Kumaraswamy, but for years it stumbled, with builders withdrawing and rules blocking progress. It was only in 2023 that the work began to gather force, when the Greater Bengaluru Bidadi Smart City Planning Authority was raised to the level of the Greater Bengaluru Development Authority.
With Cabinet consent granted in February 2025, and the first notice for acquiring land issued the following month, the township now stretches across 8,493 acres in nine villages – 6,731 acres in private hands, 750 under government, and more than 1,000 taken up by lakes and water bodies.
Land Acquisition, Compensation, and Farmers’ Concerns
Shivakumar told the farmers who had gathered in protest that no further land would be taken, though he made it plain that plots already notified could not be withdrawn under the law. Around seventy per cent of landowners, among them relatives of Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, have already accepted the terms of payment, while the rest continue to hold out.
The Deputy Chief Minister also spoke of plans to raise ten thousand crore rupees, so that compensation might be given without injustice. “Lakhs of young people from our state will benefit from jobs, and farmers will be fairly compensated. This is about Karnataka’s future,” he said. He added that other projects, such as the Upper Krishna, Mekedatu, and the Peripheral Ring Road valued at twenty-seven thousand crore, are also moving ahead with fresh land being acquired.
Final Words
The AI township at Bidadi, Bengaluru, is only just coming out of its administrative coma after almost 20 years of bureaucratic hibernation. What started as a pipe dream in the year 2006 has turned out to be a 10000 crore reality check of the dreams of Karnataka. As farmers hold on to their compensation checks and tech enthusiasts fantasize about silicon valleys growing out of rice paddies, the actual test is yet to come.
Will this 9,000-acre experiment really help to decongest Bengaluru legendary traffic jams, or will it merely generate a new form of gridlock, but this time in gigabytes, not kilometers? As 70 percent of the landowners are already sold on the vision and the world is swarming with venture vultures, Bidadi is either going to be the smartest city in India or the most costly experiment in artificial aspiration. In any case, the young people of Karnataka should begin sharpening their coding tools- the robots are on the way and they are taking jobs with them.
