Another Southern Ring Road, not so NICE

Another Southern Ring Road, not so NICE
Saturday June 21 2008 09:51 IST

G Virat Singh

BANGALORE:The BJP coming to power may not be so nice for Ashok Kheny, chief of NICE (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises), who supported the party as a part of his daring crusade against the Gowda family.

The BJP-led Government's decision on the peripheral ring road to be constructed on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model around Bangalore may pose problems for him.

The decision has come as a surprise as it would be a mere duplication of efforts at the cost of several thousands of acres of agricultural land owned by poor farmers.

As per the decision, the total road length would be 117 km, covering both southern (64.5 km) and northern (52.5 kms sectors). Interestingly, a peripheral ring road covering 39.2 km of the 41 km in the southern sector, has already been constructed by NICE. This road is two to four km away from the proposed peripheral ring road.

The construction of a parallel road, very close to the existing NICE ring road, would not only be a duplication effort, it would also use a minimum of Rs 825 crore of the taxpayers' money, as per the present estimate of Rs 30 lakh per acre, and Rs 10 crore to lay a one-km road. And Government estimates are invariably subject to escalation.

The proposed southern sector would require about 971 acres, approximately 18.5 acres per km. The total land cost alone would be Rs 300 crore. And the road would cost Rs 525 crore.

While the decision to construct the ring road in the northern segment can be hailed for avoiding the construction of a southern segment peripheral ring road (since the toll road is already under construction by the NICE), executing agency BDA will not only be saving Rs 825 crore, but will also prevent a huge chunk of valuable agricultural and forest land from being acquired.

The funds saved by avoiding a parallel peripheral ring road can be used to improve arterial, sub-arterial and all other roads connecting the peripheral road.

Besides, the green wedge (of the green belt) being stuck between two major southern segment peripheral roads will not be a viable condition for Green Belt continuity and is bound to have a disastrous impact on the flora and fauna.

The JD(S), controlled by the Gowda clan, had been campaigning against Kheny's NICE and had proposed to construct another road parallel to NICE. As PPP is based on private enterprise taking up public works and recovering the costs, apart from earning profits from a toll paid by users, a free parallel road would mean the loss of revenue to the entrepreneur investing huge amounts for the work.

It was due to this that the Government had signed an agreement with Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) to close the HAL airport. The agreement is being adhered to, despite public uproar and inconvenience caused due to poor connectivity to the new airport.