Even as the first phase of the proposed Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP) is yet to be completed 12 years after it was originally conceived, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE), the company which is implementing BMICP, has proposed to build a mono rail along the 50 km peripheral and link road.
The company proposes to build the mono rail on the median of the peripheral and link road that connects the clover leaf junction, the starting point to Mysore. The company, which is still in the process of completing the peripheral road project (work pending due to non availability of land), recently submitted its proposal to the Karnataka government for permission to build a mono rail. While the exact cost of the monorail is yet to be worked out, it is likely to cost around Rs 3,000 crore.
According to Ashok Kheny, managing director, NICE, it is feasible to build a mono rail up to Mysore on the median of the proposed BMIC project. “We are waiting for an approval from the state government. We have necessary designs ready for this project. We have made sufficient provision in the median of our expressway project (11.2 metres) for laying the track for monorail. However, as per the existing laws, private players cannot build monorail between two cities. So, we propose to do it only for the peripheral road inside the city and make provision on our expressway upto Mysore for future use,” he said.
He said the project may cost around Rs 60 crore per kilometre (About Rs 3,000 crore for 50 km project). The company proposes to build four captive power plants of 100 Mw each along the expressway at four different locations to meet the power requirements of the monorail, Kheny said.
Meanwhile, the cost of the BMIC project has gone up by nearly two times to Rs 3,500 crore compared to Rs 1,200 crore originally estimated at the time of signing the agreement with Karnataka government about 12 years ago, he told Business Standard.
Out of the proposed 160 km long expressway project, which includes 41 kms of peripheral road and 9 kms of link road around Bangalore city, the work has been completed on the peripheral road except a minor portion at Gottigere, he said. The peripheral road and link road have been built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore, a company official said.
“We are waiting for the state government to transfer about 20 acres at Gottigere so that we can complete the peripheral road work. Also, the government is yet to transfer the remaining 14,000 acres land to complete the expressway project,” Kheny said.
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Currently, the government has transferred around 5,000 acres to the company for the expressway project, while the company has acquired another 2,000 acres from the private land owners. The company has deposited Rs 148 crore with the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board towards the cost of land acquisition.
Earlier, Kheny told reporters that the company has reduced the toll charged on the peripheral road by about 25-30 per cent after a big hue and cry from a large section of road users over the last few days.