NICE: Private structures choking BMIC

NICE: Private structures choking BMIC
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) which is executing the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project is facing some hurdles with some private buildings coming up in the middle of the corridor way.

A construction of a building by a former bureaucrat Vijay Raghavan, has come up in the alignment of BMIC project near Gottigere village adjacent to Gottigere lake.

Interestingly, the government, instead of preventing the construction of buildings in the project area, has asked the NICE company to leave aside the building and construct a road across the Gottigere lake.

In its letter to the company, the government pointed out that about 135 persons out of 435 have voted for road around the lake and the rest have opted a road overbridge above the lake, in the public hearing recently.

The SC, by dismissing a review petition filed by the State Government recently, cleared all the hurdles for the project. The Apex Court had asked the government to cooperate in executing the Rs 3,000 crore project, which is expected to reduce the travelling time considerably between Bangalore and Mysore.

Speaking to this website’s newspaper, NICE Managing Director Ashok Kheny said that the alignment around the lake was part of the original plan. “Bisecting of the lake will be against the High Court order. The Government can’t ask us to go above the lake, just to protect a private land. “

“The building has come up without any approval from statutory authorities. He maintained that the construction of buildings have started after the preliminary notification by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board for the BMICP peripheral road,” Kheny said.

He pointed out that the BMIC area Planning Authority had issued notices to Vijay Raghavan asking him to stop the construction as the land comes directly on the alignment of the peripheral road.