BMIC expressway to be ready by Dec 2007

The world class four-lane Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) expressway will be thrown open to traffic by December 31, 2007, if the State Government hands over the required land for the project.

Managing Director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Mr Ashok K Kheny gave this assurance at a presentation on BMIC project during a function organised by Builders’ Association of India’s (BAI) Mysore chapter on Wednesday evening.

He said the road component of the BMIC project costs Rs 2,500 crore and the 111-km long state-of-the-art expressway would facilitate travel of vehicles at a speed of 120 kms per hour. “The travel time between Mysore and Bangalore will be one hour once the expressway is thrown open to traffic”, he said.

Though the expressway allows for a speed of 180 kms an hour, traffic discipline will be ensured with the installation of video cameras at a distance of every kilometer to monitor the traffic, he said

Work on the eagerly awaited fast-track highway is yet to begin from the Mysore end on account of the failure of the Government to hand over the land required for the project. “The Government said the land for the project to begin from Mysore end should be handed over by Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). I am keen on beginning the work from Mysore end. I have submitted more than a hundred letters to the Government”, he said.

Regretting the hurdles posed before the project and the “harassment” meted out to him by the Government and the bureaucracy, Mr Kheny said he was planning to put up hoardings in different places with the name and contact number of the officials responsible for the delay in the implementation of the project.

Mr Kheny said his company was looking forward to starting work from Mysore end and complete the bridge across river Cauvery at the earliest. “I am planning to building replica of the golden bridge of San Francisco across river Cauvery”, Mr Kheny told a packed audience at the B N Bahadur Institute of Management Studies.

Work on the BMIC project was, however, continuing in different places with the first section of the Outer Peripheral Road in Bangalore scheduled to be thrown open to traffic on June 16, 2006.