Govt delay slows down BMIC

Work on the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project is on at a snail’s pace, thanks to the state government’s delay in handing over land. Picture: The Times of India


BMIC PROJECT COUNTDOWN
Govt delay slows down BMIC
NICE Says No Land Was Handed Over Since July 2004
The Times of India


Delay on the part of state government in handing over land has slackened the pace of India’s first private integrated-infrastructure project, Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC).

Against a deadline of July for the first 19-km stretch of peripheral road, project company Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) is now hoping to open it by November. Irksome, small patches of land are needed to finish it.

“We have not got even one acre of land from the government since July 2004, despite the Supreme Court ordering expedition of the project. We are waiting for about 450 acres of land in different patches to complete the first stretch and throw it open to traffic,’’ NICE representatives told The Times of India.

A further stretch from Kanakapura Road to Bannerghatta Road is expected to be completed by December. NICE is seeking a total of 1,500 acres including toll centres and interchanges.

The C-shaped first stretch — link road from PES college to Sompura (9 km), Mysore Road to Sompura (4 km), Sompura to Kanakapura Road near Talghattapura (6 km), Kanakapura Road to Bannerghatta Road (10 km) — is crucial to Bangalore city. For a toll, this stretch, walled on both sides to ensure unhampered flow of traffic, will reduce travel time from Kengeri to Bannerghatta Road to an astonishing 10 minutes!

Two arms of the ambitious clover-leaf interchange at Sompura are already complete. This interchange connects the link road, the Kanakapura-Mysore Road arc and the start of the 110 km Bangalore-Mysore expressway.

Most of the link road to PES college is already laid, while bitumen layers have been spread out on one half of the Sompura-Kanakapura Road arc. Both roads will be complete as soon as the state government hands over land near PES college and next to Kanakapura Road.

PWD officials said: “We are ready to hand over all sections of land required for the road portion. We are on the verge of giving them land belonging to the forest department that they have sought for the project.’’

Work has also begun on the first 12-km stretch of the Bangalore-Mysore expressway and the Mysore Road-Tumkur Road stretch of the peripheral road. There has been no progress, though, on the politically sensitive first township in Bidadi which is also part of Phase I.