K'taka plans fresh tenders for B'lore-Mysore corridor

Not willing to give up its fight with the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd (NICE), which is implementing the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, Karnataka plans to seek the Supreme Court's permission to float fresh global tender for the project.

The decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday. The fresh tender comes in the wake of a new bid submitted by a company, Global Infrastructure Consortium, which intends to complete the project at a much cheaper rate than NICE. The government has already filed a petition in this connection in the Supreme Court.

"As per the new infrastructure policy formulated by the state, any suo moto proposal has to be placed for global competitive bidding through the Swiss Challenge method. In view of the same, the offer made by the GIC has to be placed at the global level to seek better offers," Karnataka's primary and secondary education minister Basavaraj Horatti told reporters after the meeting.

Horatti said NICE had every right to participate in the bidding process if the global tender was floated.