Mysore expressway back on fast lane

Chief secretary ordered to be prosecuted

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday gave the green signal for the Rs 2,200 crore Bangalore-Mysore expressway.

In a landmark judgement, the high court has instructed the state government to honour the framework agreement executed between the state government and Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE) signed on April 3, 1997 in its letter and spirit.

The high court has also quashed the K C Reddy Committee which was recently-constituted by the state government. The court has further instructed NICE to execute the Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure project expeditiously.

In another severe setback to the state government, the court has stated that criminal proceedings under Article 340 should be initiated against K K Mishra, chief secretary to the state government, and M Shivalingaswamy, under secretary in department of commerce and industry, for misleading the court and filing a false affidavit.

Welcoming the decision, Ashok Khenny, managing director, NICE Limited said, "Our faith in the judicial system has been vindicated. We are delighted with the decision of the division bench of the high court of Karnataka."

The company has already commenced phase I of the project and it is expected to be completed by mid-September.

The first phase involves 41 km of peripheral road connecting Tumkur Road to Bannerghatta Road and then on to Electronics City. This initial phase also envisages connecting the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway to State Highway 17, a distance of around 9 kms.

The first phase involves a total land area of 4,260 acres at a cost of around Rs 850 crore. Nearly 85 per cent of this land has been acquired and the remaining 15 per cent is in the process of being acquired. This is expected to decongest a major part of the Bannerghatta traffic flow into Electronic City.

The financial closure for the Phase I has already been achieved and this road will also see completion of 12 kms of Bangalore-Mysore Expressway upto Bidadi.

The debt component is Rs 480 crore at 11 per cent interest for this phase and financial institutions like LIC, New India have taken exposure to the project.

Commenting on the time frame for completion of the long-pending project which promises to cut the travel time from Bangalore to Mysore by half, Khenny had earlier said: "The project involves a total land area of 20,193 acres costing Rs 2,250 crore and the next 90 km of Bangalore -- Mysore expressway from Bidadi will be completed by August 2006 and the remaining will be finished by August 2007. The debt:equity ratio for the entire project is 1.6:1 and a lot of interest has been shown by various financial institutions."

Khenny had further added that they intend to pay off the debt over a 11-year period through toll collections and "a uniqueness of this toll-project is that the toll is collected at the vehicles' exit point."

"At every 10 km over the stretch, there are exit points. Each vehicle is given a smart card at the entry point and the traveller can exit where he wants and pay only for the distance travelled which will be captured in the smart card," Khenny highlighted.