Land transfer delay doubles cost of BMIC

The cost of Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project executed by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited (NICEL) is likely to more than double the original estimate of Rs 1,500 crore. The project, which commenced in 1997, has already seen an investment of Rs 2,000 crore and another Rs 1,500 crore is required to complete it, a top company official said.

“We had originally estimated the cost of the project at Rs 1,500 crore for both acquisition of land and construction of the road up to Mysore including peripheral and link roads in and around Bangalore. However, due to the inordinate delay in the transfer of land by the state government, the project has been delayed and the cost of the project has gone up,” Ashok Kheny, managing director, NICEL said.

Commenting on the allegations made by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda that NICE had been trying to acquire excess land for the project, Kheny said, “So far the company has been given 7,300 acres of the 20,193 acres required for the project by the state government. Another 13,000 acres are still to be handed over by the government and the company is not interested in acquire an extra square inch than what is required for the project.”

The company has till now completed 65 kms of peripheral and link road in and around Bangalore including interchanges and bridges. “Once the remaining land is given to us, we will complete the expressway up to Mysore within one year and open it for public use,” Kheny told reporters.

He said, acquisition of land for the road project was the responsibility of the government through the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) and NICEL has deposited Rs 148 crore with KIADB for acquisition of land till now.

On Gowda’s statement that his family does not possess any land along BMIC route, Kheny said 44 acres of land at Kethaganahalli was in the name of H D Kumaraswamy and 47 acres at Devagere near Kengeri belongs to family members of Balakrishna Gowda. The land is worth Rs 1,500 crore, he alleged.

He claimed that the former Prime Minister, in 2004, offered 5,000 more acres of land for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project if the company excluded 2,400 acres of notified land in which the Gowda family had interests.

He said that Deve Gowda had called him on January 8, 2004, during which the latter had made the offer. “However, I did not agree to exclude 2,400 acres of land as taking another 5,000 acres would have affected farmers,” Kheny said.