Pace of land acquisition delays BMIC project

The much-awaited Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP), which is expected to reduce the commuting time between the two cities to one and a half hours, is likely to be delayed further. Work on the 111-km project, which commenced in February 2004, is expected to finish only by December 2008.

According to company officials of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICE) which is executing the project, the Rs 2,250 crore expressway is already running way behind schedule by one and a half years and is moving at a slow pace due to the delay in handing over of the required land by the state government to NICE, the implementing agency.

"We are unable to complete the project as stipulated earlier due to the non-availability of land. While the preliminary notification was issued to the land holders for the entire 20,193 acres identified for the project, the final notification has been issued only for 2,564 acres. Yet, we are going ahead with the work on the road and will soon commission a part of the first phase of the project," the company official said.

He told Business Standard that the company has been given possession of only 1,835 acres of land by the state government and the work on the first phase of the road is in full swing. The work on the first phase will be completed in June 2006.

The Kalyani Group, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin & SAB Eng of the US had signed a contract in 1995 with the then chief minister of Karnataka H D Deve Gowda and the framework agreement in February 1997 with former chief minister J H Patel for the project.

Of the 62 km to be completed in the first phase, 37 km has been completed so far (12 km of expressway, 9 km of link road and 41 km of the peripheral road connecting Tumkur Road and Hosur Road at one end and the BHEL junction to Banashankari 6th stage at the other).

A stretch of 8.6 km of the peripheral road connecting Kengeri on Mysore road and Talaghattapur on Kanakapura Road will be opened to vehicular movement by the middle of February, he said.

"We had earlier planned to complete the work on one of the five townships in the first phase by August 2005 if the government transferred 5,600 acres of land to the project's promoters," the official said.

The BMICP comprises 75 metre-wide 41-km of peripheral road connecting NH-4 and NH-7; 60 metre wide 9 km link road connecting the centre of Bangalore city to the expressway and 90 metre wide 111 km expressway connecting Bangalore to Mysore.

A component of the project is five self-sustaining townships along the expressway and a 400 MW power plant, 2 TMC water supply pipeline and sewerage treatment plant.