Promoter of expressway can sell land

After clearing some hurdles posed by political sections and farmers, the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project on Tuesday secured a Supreme Court interim order allowing it to sell or alienate and mortgage land in its possession for the execution of the project.

A bench headed by Justice Ruma Pal modified its earlier order and said that the project will go on and alienate or mortgage land could go on but will be subject to the final outcome of the appeals pending before it.

Welcoming the decision, a spokesman for Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE), the project executing company, said, "We are extremely happy over the interim order and will like to keep up the spirit of the order and focus on completing the phase I by July 2006."

The state government, adhering to earlier court orders, has been extending co-operation and releasing land on a regular basis. "This has led us to old levels of co-operation and has giving us the opportunity to complete phase I of the project," he added.

It may be recalled, the Supreme Court had stayed prosecution of the then Karnataka chief secretary K K Mishra, directed by the Karnataka high court, which held him liable for 'perjury and withholding' documents in the controversial Rs 2,250 crore Bangalore-Mysore expressway project.

Also in May, the high court had instructed the state government to honour the framework agreement executed between the state government and NICE on April 3, 1997 in its letter and spirit.

The high court has also quashed the K C Reddy Committee which was earlier constituted by the state government to re-examine the project.

Supporting NICE in its grievance against the state government, an industries association submitted several projects have been pending since 1992 and they should be allowed to continue without delay.

The Supreme Court bench listed the matter for further hearing on January 10, next year.

Traffic flow from Jan 26
The stretch connecting Mysore Road and Kanakapura Road will be thrown open to traffic on January 26. This is a component of the peripheral road.

The first phase of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, which will be completed next July, involves 41 km of peripheral road connecting Tumkur Road to Bannerghatta Road and then on to Electronics City (Hosur Road).

This phase also includes plans to connect the expressway to state highway 17, a distance of around 9 km (BHEL junction on Mysore Road and starting point of expressway at Banashankari sixth stage). It also includes the first 12 km of expressway.