NICE plans to sue govt for delay

NICE plans to sue govt for delay
The Times of India

Bangalore: Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which is building the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway, is contemplating contempt of court proceedings against Karnataka government officials for delaying the handing over of land for completing the project’s first phase.

Ashok Kheny, managing director of the company, said not an inch of land had been handed over to NICE since the Supreme Court order on April 20 clearing the project. “I’m in the process of collecting data on how fast the state government has handed over land for other projects. To us it looks like delays are unending only in our project. Once I have all information, I will sue the government for malafide intentions,” he said.

NICE requires land immediately for the interchanges along its outer peripheral road. These interchanges will enable people using, say the Mysore Road or the Kanakapura Road, to get onto NICE’s peripheral road. NICE has almost completed the stretch between Mysore Road and Kanakapura Road and is in a position to throw open that stretch the moment the interchanges are ready.

NICE officials say the land required for these interchanges have been in the possession of the government since 2003 and it is merely a matter of handing it over. When contacted by TOI, government officials merely said they were in the process of handing over the land, declining to give a time frame within which this would be done.

Kheny said he’s even seriously considering putting up billboards in strategic locations in Bangalore explaining the reasons for the delay in the project and naming officials who he sees as responsible for the delay. “I may also put their pictures and telephone numbers so that the public can question them on the delay,” he said. According to NICE, for its first township near Bidadi, the government had issued a preliminary notification and issued notices to landowners about two years ago, but the final notification had still not been issued. “They keep asking me for more details, they say they want to do more studies. It never ends,” Kheny said.