SC upholds HC order on B'lore-Mysore expressway

Project cost goes up to Rs 2,850 crore

 The court said the costs imposed on the Karnataka government and its institutions will be paid to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), the developer which had entered into an agreement with the state in 1997 for executing the project.

The bench also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on JD(U) MLA C Madhuswami, Rama Reddy of the CPI and others who had appealed against the High Court judgement of May 3, 2005. The High Court had given a green signal to the project aimed at promoting an integrated infrastructure corridor between the two cities consisting of residential, industrial and commercial facilities covering 20,139 acre of land.

"We are extremely happy with the Supreme Court verdict. With this judgement, the hands of the Chief Minister of Karnataka would be further strengthened to help and expedite the completion of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project and to bring prosperity and economic upliftment of the people of Karnataka," a NICE spokesperson said.

The present state government, even before the SC verdict, was supporting BMICP along with other infrastructure projects. "We will now focus on completing the project expeditiously as a public private partnership along with the government of Karnataka," Chief Minister Kumaraswamy said.

 Meanwhile, the cost of the project has gone up to Rs 2,850 crore. NICE proposes to commission a 9-km stretch of the Mysore-Kanakapura road in the next 25 days. The entire stretch of 62-kms being constructed in the first phase of the project will be thrown open for public use by the end of August this year, a company spokesperson said.