BMIC Phase I by new year

Deve Gowda has been misled by officials, claims Ashok Kheny.

BANGALORE, DHNS:

After the Congress-led coalition government came to power in the state, not a single acre of land has been handed over to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) limited for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) Project.

Though work on 17.5 kms of the total 63.5 kms has been taken up under Phase-I of the project, the Government is yet to handover more than 3,000 acres of land for Phase-1, Mr Ashok Kheny, managing director, Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise said on Tuesday. Only 1035 acres has been handed over till now. Expressing unhappiness over the development, Mr Kheny alleged that some IAS, KAS officers and politicians were causing hurdles for the project. Some of the officers, whose lands come under the ambit of the project want to become partners of the NICE company, he said. On the allegations made by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda against the project, Mr Kheny said Mr Gowda has been misled by some officers.

Meanwhile, giving an update on the progress of Phase-1, Mr Kheny told reporters that four-kms of the total 63.5-kms under phase-I of the BMIC Project will be thrown open for traffic by January 2005, while the remaining stretch by August 15.

Of the 1,035 acres of land handed over to NICE company, the promoters of the BMIC project, by the Government for the first phase, work has commenced on 17.5-kms stretch from February. ‘Work on the four-km stretch from Sompura to Mysore Road (4kms) will be completed by January or February 2005’, Mr Kheny said.

Mr Kheny said that 9.1 kms of link road connecting Mysore Road to Sompura, 41 kms of Peripheral Road from Tumkur Road to Hosur Road (near Electronics City), 13 kms of expressway and township comprise Phase-I of the project. On the allegation that the compensation paid to land owners was much below the market rate, Mr Kheny said that there was no truth in the allegation and added that compensation fixed is between Rs 6 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per acre depending on the location.There is no dearth of funds to pay compensation, he added.

“We have already deposited Rs 82.5 crore with the KIADB for paying compensation”, Mr Kheny said. Lands belonging to nearly 4,000 villagers will be acquired for the project in the first phase and the total compensation amount required is Rs 250 crore. ‘We are ready to pay the compensation anytime provided the land is handed over to us’, he added.

The total land required for the entire BMIC project is 20,193 acres. The NICE company will develop 6,000 sites for villagers, who will lose their lands in the entire project, he added.