The Hindu Business Line : BMICP promoter awaits land transfer

The promoter of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project says it will start vigorously pursuing land transfer with the State Government now that a Supreme Court Bench has upheld the project.

The ball, according to its spokesman, is in the State Government's court. Over 900 acres are required on priority and another 13,000 acres have to be finally notified and transferred to the company throughout the project alignment. "We are waiting for the State Government to transfer the required land so that we can go ahead with work in the pending segments," said Mr Manjunath Naicker, spokesperson for the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises.

NICE, the SPV of the Kalyani group-promoted BMICP, is currently implementing phase A, costing Rs 1,350 crore out of the total project estimate of Rs 2,250 crore. Phase A, the first of the three, is being built at the Bangalore end. It includes a 41-km outer peripheral road, nine-km link road to the outer road and 12 km of expressway up to Bidadi.

"The schedules have gone awry but some of the difficult part of work has been done, such as rock cutting. We can speed up the project once we get the land in our possession. We are optimistic that this will be done at least now," he said. NICE expects to ready the road by 2008.

On Thursday, a three-member Supreme Court Bench dismissed a review petition filed by the H.D. Kumaraswamy Government. The State Government had sought review of the apex court's April 2006 judgment, which had upheld the project and levied an Rs 5-lakh penalty on the State Government.

The Government's contention is that the promoter possesses excess land of 2,150 acres of prime land around Bangalore over its permitted extent. This has been dismissed by the High Court once and by the apex court twice.

Conceived in 1994, the BMICP is co-promoted by the Kalyani group. It involves 111-km toll road between Bangalore and Mysore and five townships along the expressway. NICE says the grade-separated, fenced four-lane expressway will halve the three-hour travel time between the two cities.

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