Govt denotifies land around Gottigere

Govt denotifies land around Gottigere
The Times of India


Bangalore: The state government has issued orders denotifying some land surrounding Gottigere Lake, which is in the path of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC).
According to internal letters written by the industries and public works departments, the government has said the land around the lake is not necessary. Its contention: project company NICE has not submitted maps needed to identify the corridor alignment across the lake and the land around the lake’s curve is considered not required for the project.
The issue of how the corridor should be aligned is still pending in the Karnataka High Court. The government had initially asked NICE to build the road around the lake, but later directed it to go across the lake. A case was filed in the Karnataka HC. A judgment by Justice V K Sodhi said there was no need to change the alignment proposed by NICE.
The case then went to the Supreme Court, which directed it back to HC. The government then issued orders denotifying the land around the lake. Sources said this pre-empted HC’s decision. “If the court upholds the NICE stand, the land around the lake will be necessary. If it is denotified before that, it means anything can come up on that land. How will the road go on it?’’
Once the land is denotified, it will have to be acquired again for the road, which is an elaborate process.