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.