Annuling NICE project leads to contempt of court: Kheny

Bangalore, Aug 30 (UNI) Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) CEO Ashok Kheny today said the state Cabinet's decision to seek court permission to annul the contract reached between the government and NICE on transfer of land for the express highway project will amount to contempt of court.

NICE is executing the 110-km long expressway project between Bangalore and Mysore and is at loggerheads with the state government over transfer of excess land over and above the land required for laying of roads.

Mr Kheny, an NRI, speaking from the US said the work on the expressway project would not be affected by today's Cabinet decision to revoke clauses of the 2001 agreement between the then S M Krishna Government and NICE pertaining to transfer of lands to the promotors.

He said NICE would file another petition in the Supreme Court which was already hearing cases pertaining to the project following the Cabinet's decision, he added.

The Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, today decided to revoke clauses pertaining to transfer of lands to the promoters of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMIC).

The Cabinet decided to seek the Supreme Court's permission to enter into a new agreement with Global Infrastructure Consortium which had come forward to execute the BMIC project using only 21,193 acres of land.

UNI