SC asks NICE to move HC

SC asks NICE to move HC
DH News Service, New Delhi:
While dismissing a petition seeking the speedy execution of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) Project, the Supreme Court on Monday told the petitioner, project promoter Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), to approach the Karnataka High Court with a contempt petition if its April 2006 order was violated.


A bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal told the petitioner to approach the High Court if the Karnataka Government was not executing the order directing both the State government and the contractor to abide by the original framework agreement.

In its petition, the NICE said the BMIC was conceived in 1988 for which the framework agreement was signed on April 3, 1997 and about Rs 1100 crore had been spent. Due to a series of PILs filed by motivated people and personal vendetta by a political party, which shared power in Karnataka in successive coalition governments between 2003 and 2008, the project did not see the light of the day till date.

Delay in project

The NICE advocate submitted that the last government headed by Chief Minster H D Kumaraswamy deliberately delayed the execution of the project.

The petition alleged that the State government violated the apex court order of April 20, 2006, which issued clear directions to execute the project in accordance with the framework agreement.

The 2006 judgment upheld the Karnataka High Court order and directed the parties to stick to the clauses of the original agreement.

In its application filed last year during the tenure of Kumaraswamy regime, Karnataka contended that it had initiated a new global tender process on September 17, 2007.

It alleged that the contractor was not interested in implementing the project as conceived originally and despite the direction of the apex court, the execution was lagging behind by years due to the fault of the contractor.