The Hindu Business Line : Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure project — HC upholds original framework agreement with promoters

THE imbroglio over the Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure corridor project peaked on Tuesday with the Karnataka High Court upholding the original framework agreement with the promoter and ordering criminal proceedings against the Chief Secretary and an Under Secretary for misleading the court and filing false affidavits.

Dismissing a PIL filed by legislators, Mr Madhu Swamy, Mr G.V. Sreerama Reddy and others with cost, a Division Bench including the Chief Justice, Mr N.K. Sodhi, and Mr Justice B. Padmaraj, directed the Registrar-General to start criminal proceedings against the Chief Secretary, Mr K.K. Mishra, and the Under Secretary in the Commerce & Industries Department, Mr M. Shivalinga Swamy.

The Chief Minister, Mr N. Dharam Singh, called an emergency meeting of the Cabinet for the evening. The Bench directed the Kalyani group-led promoter consortium, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), to complete the project and asked the State Government to honour the enabling framework agreement it signed with NICE in 1997.

The BMICP is a Rs 2,250-crore project conceived in 1994 and includes an 111-km six-lane toll road linking Bangalore and Mysore, 42 km of peripheral road outside Bangalore and four townships abutting the corridor. The road and the townships will come up on over 20,000 acres of mostly privately land acquired for the project through the State agencies. Work has begun on the first of three phases for 62 km of peripheral and link roads outside Bangalore.

Almost from the start, BMICP and NICE have constantly been in legal binds, fighting several cases from land-holders, farmers and environmentalists, and more lately, a barrage of accusations from politicians over taking more land than was necessary around the city. At a news conference later, the NICE Managing Director, Mr Ashok Kheny, said the project would continue to meet the phase 1 target of August this year. The entire project was scheduled to be ready in August 2007 - against the original plan for 2000, he said.

"Phase 1 involves 6,700 acres and the company holds 2,300 acres. I hope the remaining land will be given in the next 60 days," he said. Mr Kheny demanded that the PWD Minister, Mr H.D. Revanna, should resign: Soon after the new coalition government was formed, Mr Revanna, son of the former Prime Minister, Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, raked up project issues and said NICE had been given surplus land.

The judges also quashed the order of the Congress-I - Janata Dal (S) Government, which had constituted an expert panel under former official, Mr K.C. Reddy, to review the project and the extent of land acquired it.

The All-India Manufacturers' Organisation and the mayor of Mysore had filed another PIL seeking speedy completion of the project.

Govt to move SC

The Karnataka Cabinet on Tuesday decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict asking the State Government to prosecute the Chief Secretary and another senior official in the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project case.

Briefing newspersons after a Cabinet meeting here this evening in the wake of the court verdict, the Law Minister, Mr H.K. Patil, said the appeal would also be on various other issues where the State's position on the project has not been accepted by the High Court.

He said since the Chief Secretary had filed the affidavit and taken action in pursuance of the direction of the Cabinet and the Government, the Cabinet was ``wholeheartedly with him''. — PTI

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