Vehicle users on NICE Road need not pay toll and farmers whose lands were acquired for the project can hope for compensation if the government implements the recommendations of the House Committee report on alleged irregularities of the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), a promoter of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).
The committee, in its voluminous report, has recommended a stop to the collection of toll on the road, pointing out that the developer violated the Framework Agreement (FWA), and collecting toll without laying a concrete road. It has completed only 49 km of motorable road. On the 9.8-km link road, about 8 km is in concrete. As per the time fixed by the government, NICE has not provided concrete road of 41 km peripheral and 13 km expressway.
It said the developer has been collecting toll for a tar road since 2008. The technical committee estimated toll collection of Rs. 28.39 crore in 2008-09, but as per the NICE balance sheet, toll collection was much higher. This indicated that the technical committee has “deliberately projected low revenue, the report said.
To assess the number of road users, the PWD conducted a survey between February 27, 2015, and March 2, 2015, and it showed toll collection of Rs. 88.40 lakh per day, totalling an average of Rs. 322.65 crore a year.
The committee recommended to declare toll collection as “illegal” on NICE road and take steps to stop it.
The real victims
The land owners or farmers have become “real victims” of the project, the report pointed out, saying only 58 per cent of the land losers received some kind of compensation. Of these only 27 per cent received full compensation, and 15 per cent received partial compensation. As much as 91 per cent of acquired land for the project was agricultural. It recommended withdrawal of 11,660 acres of both private and government land earmarked for the project.
According to a socio-economic impact study conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru, the committee said 60 per cent of land losers have become daily wagers. Nearly 69 per cent of the land acquired was from small and marginal farmers.
Farmers’ lands were locked as no final notification was issued after preliminary notification. Now, farmers cannot sell the land though they had not received compensation. The developer has violated the FWA by not implementing rehabilitation and resettlement.
Land owners have been undergoing undue hardship due to delay in implementation of the project and protracted retention of the lands, the committee said. The private developer has resorted to sale, mortgage of lands, besides execution of joint developments. The FWA does not provide for sale of land in section A of the project. Lack of coordination among various departments of the government had led to violation of FWA. The KIADB had been indiscriminate in acquiring lands for the project.
The agreements executed by KIADB do not even remotely refer to the FWA. The PWD had not taken effective measures to enforce FWA or enforce default clause of the FWA.
It added that government agencies gave excessive exemptions such as in stamp duty and registration fee.
The confidentiality clause of the FWA had been indiscriminately abused it said. “Non-submission of Celestial Map, financial closure documents, alignment, land use pattern, audited balance sheets, under the guise of this clause is deplorable.”
