The Karnataka High Court, on 3 May 2005, upheld 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, in connection with the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).

Dismissing a PIL filed by legislators, 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 Bench directed the Kalyani group-led promoter consortium, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), to complete the project and asked the Karnataka government to honour the enabling framework agreement it signed with NICE in 1997.

Conceived in 1994, 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 private land acquired for the project through state agencies. Work has begun on the first of three phases for 62 km of peripheral and link roads outside Bangalore.

According to Mr Ashok Kheny, Managing Director, NICE, Phase I of the project would be complete by August 2005. The entire project would now be completed in August 2007 as against the original schedule of 2000.

Phase 1 involves 6,700 acres of which the company holds 2,300 acres. NICE expects to receive the remaining land over the next two months.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Cabinet has 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.