BMIC project: NICE asked to confine itself to building roads

Bangalore, June 17 (UNI) The Karnataka Government has asked the Nandi Infrastraucture Corridor Enteprise (NICE) to first complete 162 kms of road, including the 111 km expressway, under the controversial Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, before taking up the five township projects.

In a five-page letter to NICE dated June 12, a copy of which was made available to the press here today, State Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary for Public Works P B Mahishi sought NICE to restrict itself to the construction of 111 km of expressway, 41 km of peripheral road and 9.8 km of link road envisaged under the multicrore project.

He said the State was taking ''emergent steps'' to make available 2,103 acres of land for construction of peripheral road and seven interchanges thereon, besides 278 acres of land for the construction of link road.

Stating that the Karnataka High Court had specifically and purposely restricted the scope of the project ''as conceived originally'' and upheld it in the Somashekhar Reddy case, he said NICE as a respondent before the cases in the High Court and the Supreme Court was equally bound to honour the verdict to implement the project as ''originally conceived'' and confine itself to the rights available in the Framework Agreement in order to implement the Apex Court judgement. The state government, in its affidavit, had stated that the respondent could develop the townships only after the expressway was completed.

Quoting the High Court judgement rendered on May three and subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court, the letter said that once the Framework Agreement was held valid and proper, the extent of land required for the project formed part thereof had become final and conclusive. It was neither open to the State Government nor to J C Madhuswamy (JD-U) and others (who had filed the case against NICE) and not even to the Court to reopen those orders once again.

The High Court had in the Somashekhar Reddy case stated that the total land requirement of land for construction of 162 km of road was 6,999 acres. The details were 4526 acres for 111 km of expressway, including interchanges and toll plazas, 2193 acres for 41 km peripheral road and 278 acres for 9.8 km of link road.

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