Karnataka’s Legislative House Committee will probe the alleged framework agreement violations by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), which is executing the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) in the State.

Karnataka Minister for Public Works, HC Mahadevappa announced this in the State Assembly while replying to the demands of his Ministry.

Opposition demand

The opposition parties, JDS and BJP, while participating in budget demands of Public Works Department had urged the Speaker and the government to look into the alleged violations by NICE.

Legislators, cutting across party affiliations, had demanded action against NICE for failing to execute the project. Janata Dal Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy and BJP legislator SR Vishwanath on Wednesday demanded that the government scrap the agreement with the BMIC promoters and take over the project.

Charging the promoters – NICE with giving 1,291 acres of government land, given for the project, on lease to private companies, he demanded that a CBI probe be ordered into such irregularities. The other members agreed and alleged that farmers who lost their lands to the project were yet to get compensation.

The BMIC is a road project on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis with proposed 4 to 6 lane private tolled expressway that intends to connect the two important cities of Bangalore and Mysore in Karnataka.

The company is headed by Ashok Kheny, who also is an MLA.

Reforms

Mahadevappa said reforms have been initiated in the Public Works Department. “We have introduced web based initiatives for information gathering, data collection and execution of projects,” he said.

As there was no proper data available in all the 176 taluks in the state, the department had to developed Geographical Information System (GIS) based Road Information System (RIS) for PWP & IWTD Road Network and project management system to execute the projects on time, he added.

Through the RIS data collecting of road network of the department viz., National Highways (NH), State Highways (SH) and Major District Roads (MDR), Sub-division wise and km-wise has been done.

The state has submitted request to central government for conversion of 8,700 kms of state highways to national highway. “The previous UPA government considered our request and fulfilled about 40 per cent of our request,” said Dr Mahadevappa.

The government is planning to develop and up upgrade 10,000 kms of in the next four years. These will be taken up under KSHIP and KRIDL.

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