BMIC corridor to see NICE work

BMIC corridor to see NICE work
The Times of India

Bangalore: If all goes well, the first phase of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor will be ready by August. Part of the highway between outer-ring road (near Mysore Road) and Bidadi (near Toyota Plant) will be thrown open to commuters, said Ashok Kheny, managing director, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE). NICE is the project company for BMIC.

After Tuesday’s green signal from the Karnataka High Court, BMIC is looking forward to sort out another court spat with the National Highway Authority of India. NICE has pulled NHAI to court after being stopped from building ramps over Hosur Road where a separate road on stilts is also coming up. On Tuesday, Karnataka high court asked NHAI to respond to NICE’s charges within two weeks.

Meanwhile, NICE is going ahead with road building. By June, says Kheny, an intermediate stretch of 9 km peripheral road between Sompura and Bannerghatta Road will be ready for use. The ambitious target is to complete the initial phase of 62 km stretch by August 15. This includes, 9 km of link road between BHEL (Mysore Road) to Sompura, the 41 km peripheral road linking Tumkur Road with Hosur Road and 13 km stretch on the main expressway up to Bidadi.

The catch is the project company is yet to take possession of considerable stretch of land on these routes. For instance, no land has been handed over to it on the stretch between Bannerghatta and Hosur Road. This may get delayed following the legal wrangle with NHAI. On other parts of the route too, the work is said to be going on in patches of land made available to NICE.

NICE top brass are not leaving any stone unturned. Kheny met CM Dharam Singh on Tuesday to garner his renewed support to the project.

For project:

PWD principal secretary P.B. Mahishi told The Times of India: “We have not received copy of the judgment.’’

PWD sources, said the government had repeatedly stated that it was in favour of the BMIC project. “The only issue was the excess land around Bangalore city, which is not there in the original agreement. The interim report of the K.C. Reddy committee felt the land needed for the peripheral road and the interchanges should be given, as per the agreement,’’ sources said.

First Phase

First phase includes nine km of link road between BHEL (Mysore Rd) and Sompura. Also 41 km peripheral road linking Tumkur Road with Hosur Road. And 13 km stretch on main expressway up to Bidadi.