K'taka to redeem excess land from NICE

Mysore, June 8 (UNI) A Bill will be placed in the coming session of the Karnataka Assembly to redeem the excess land acquired for the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway project by its executors Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), Housing Minister D T Jayakumar informed today.

Speaking to newspersons here, he said ''NICE is a bogus and land mafia company and the main aim of its Managing Director Ashok Kheny is not construction of the Expressway but building township along the route to rake in huge profits. If NICE is a genuine company, it should have completed the project by now. '' He charged NICE with having purchased land for less than Rs five lakh per acre from poor farmers and sold the same for over Rs one crore per acre, particularly in Bidadi region. Moreover, the company had also pledged the land already purchased and raised loans to the tune of over Rs 150 crore.

Mr Jayakumar said a decision on when to proceed with the Bill would be taken up at a cabinet meeting to be held after the arrival of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy who was on a tour of the United Arab Emirates.

While the project required only 2,300 acres of land and the same was mentioned in the MoU signed between the NICE and the state government in 1994, NICE acquired 23,000 acres by moving the court with the support of the erstwhile Congress government, he alleged.

Mr Jayakumar said in the event of NICE refusing to execute the project after the government took back the excess land, global tenders would be invited and the project awarded to the most deserving company. Or else, the Mysore Urban Development Authority and Bangalore Development Authority would join hands to excute the project, he added.

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