BMIC update

SC sweeps aside last roadblock to BMIC
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Election Commission order, issued during the assembly polls, directing the state government to withhold permission to the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises project.
Governor Rameshwar Thakur’s executive committee in April gave the green signal to BMIC promoters Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises to go ahead with the project. As the decision was taken when the assembly elections were in progress, the EC directed the government of Karnataka, then under President’s rule, to withdraw its order. The government acted accordingly.
NICE challenged the EC order in the apex court on the grounds that the project had got the approval of 12 departments and, at most, the EC could have deferred the order till the poll process concluded on May 28. Aware that court would take up the hearing on EC order, sources said government on Tuesday decided to respect the earlier orders of both SC and HC — to provide land to NICE for the project.
The decade-old project had been stalled by the Kumaraswamy government. However, the governor, during President’s rule, reversed the Aug 2007 cabinet decision, allowing NICE to complete the project. The sole case pending in SC is the contempt plea filed by NICE against officers and the government for not acting on the court’s orders. BMIC often ran into trouble
Bangalore: It has been a roller coaster ride for the decade-old BMIC project.
The project came close to being shelved when the Kumaraswamy government filed a petition in the Supreme Court on July 28, 2007, stating it was considering handing over the project to an international consortium for execution.
Even as BMIC promoters Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) were in the 16th month of the project’s execution, the Karnataka government, in the affidavit, had said a US-based consortium with a turnover of over Rs 10 lakh crores offered to construct an estimated Rs 1,700-crore Monorail from Electronic City to the international airport at Devanahalli at no cost to the government, return land not required for the project, expected to fetch Rs 30,000 crore, and deposit Rs 1,000 crore with the government to be forfeited in the event of failure to meet deadlines.
Criticizing NICE for being interested only in “making profit from illegal sale of land in toll road’’, the affidavit said the consortium wanted to take up the project under the Swiss Challenge approach (a new bidding system to help the private sector). “With NICE insisting on the right to sell and develop land for profiteering at the expense of the the state, the Karnataka government was left with no option but to consider the proposal,’’ the affidavit said.
On August 30, 2007, the Kumaraswamy government revoked the clause permitting execution of sale deeds to NICE, resulting in a total clamp on release of land for the project.
The government said NICE was seeking land in excess of 20,193 acres. It cancelled the August 9, 2002 agreement between NICE and the government.
After Karnataka came under President’s rule, NICE promoter Ashok Kheny met governor Rameshwar Thakur, urging him to implement the apex court order directing the Karnataka government to allow the company to complete the project work expeditiously. The governor, who was keen that the vexed issue be resolved within the parameters of law, referred the file to the advocate-general.
On April 25, 2008, a government order gave the go-ahead for the project, which the Election Commission directed should be withdrawn as it was in violation of the model code of conduct.