Stay on fresh tenders for B'lore-Mysore corridor

The Supreme Court today stayed the Karnataka government's move to invite fresh tenders for Rs 1200-crore Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure corridor project.

The Supreme Court today directed the state government not to take "any action whatsoever" pursuant to the notification inviting global tenders for the controversial project.

The Bench headed by Justice BN Agrawal passed the order on a petition moved by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which is already implementing the project following the award of the contract in 1997.

The company argued that it has so far spent Rs 1,200 crore on the project to build a 111-km multi-lane expressway linking the two cities.

The counsel for the petitioner Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd, Ashok Desai, submitted that the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court had earlier asked the state government and the company to execute the project without any delay.

Despite the Supreme Court's mandatory order of April last year, the state government has now come up with a fresh gobal tender and has advertised in the newspapers offering the "Swiss Challenge" system.

The state government counsel Sanjay Hegde contended that the infrastructure company was grabbing land in the name of implementing the project.

Therefore, the government introduced the "Swiss Challenge" system where other parties could also compete to join the project offering their best terms. This was in public interest, according to him.

In its order, the court asked the government to file its written reply within two weeks. The case will be heard again after a month. There are already several cases related to the project pending in the high court and the Supreme Court.