NICE: court asks State to consider plea

NICE: court asks State to consider plea

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the State Government to consider a representation by a resident of Bangalore regarding implementation of the Bangalore-Mysore Expressway project as originally conceived in the frame work agreement (FWA).

A Division Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Cyriac Joseph, and Justice Ravi Malimath passed the order after the petitioner, Munne Gowda, said he had approached the State and brought to their notice the violations by NICE in implementing the project.

The petitioner alleged that NICE had all along been violating the FWA and taking up the project with several violations. He said that as per the FWA, the company should construct an elevated expressway along with five townships.

The State, he said, had entered into an agreement in 1997 with a consortium of Kalyani Group, Hagan Brustlin and SAB engineering to take up the project. Soon after, a PIL by Somashekar Reddy was filed against the project and the High Court dismissed it.

Later, a single judge of the High Court had allowed acquisition of 6,999 acres of lands for the Expressway but quashed the acquisition of 13,000 acres for the townships. The State, NICE and All India Manufacturers’ Association (AIMO) appealed against this order and a Division Bench allowed the appeals.

The petitioner said the Division Bench, in its order, had clearly stated that NICE should go ahead with the project as is originally conceived in the FWA. Despite this order and several other similar orders , NICE was flouting the FWA and going ahead with the project with several deviations.