BMIC: State not to give more land

BMIC: State not to give more land

The Cabinet has taken a tough stance against the project promoter, based on the recommendations by the K C Reddy Committee.

Deccan Herald

The state Cabinet on Wednesday decided not to hand over any additional land to the promoters of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project in a bid to prevent unauthorised real estate business by the promoters.

The Cabinet is learnt to have directed Chief Secretary K K Misra to indicate such a stand in its affidavit to be filed before the Karnataka High Court on Thursday. According to sources, the Cabinet decided to approve the above stand taken by the Public Works department which is dealing with the BMIC project.

The decision of not handing over the additional land is based on the report of the K C Reddy committee that looked into the allegations of violation of norms by project promoter Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE).

The Cabinet also approved the final report of the Expert Committee, which has concluded that the total extent of land required for the entire project including the expressway and five townships would be only 17,809.36 acre as against the 29,258 acre of land notified for the project as per the request of NICE.

Land to be taken back
Interestingly, the committee has also recommended that the land, which has been allotted in excess of 17,809.36 acre, should be taken back from the company. It has asked the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) to identify the excess land acquired for the project.

The committee’s recommendation on the requirement of land is based on the technical report furnished by the company in 1995 as part of the Framework Agreement. The committee has also recommended that the land should be handed over to the company in phases as and when it starts the work on the project.
The committee has also suggested that the company should be asked to commence the project work immediately from the Mysore side also, and that the required land should be allocated to it.

The Cabinet decided to appoint PWD as nodal agency for monitoring the implementation of the committee’s recommendations.

The Cabinet observed that the framework agreement itself was questionable as the designated authorities had not signed it. Besides, it said, the company has cheated the government by making it to sign the agreement by giving false information.


GROUND RULES

* Total land to be given:
17,809.36 acre
* Excess land to be taken back
* Work should start from Mysore side too
* Arbitration to be held in Bangalore