Farmers dig up a portion of newly laid BMIC road

Angry farmers dug up a portion of the controversial Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) road on the outskirts of Bangalore on Saturday evening protesting against the delay in release of compensation amount for their acquired land.

The digging up of close to 100 metres of the peripheral road on the outskirts of Bangalore, constructed as part of the BMIC project, comes less than a week ahead of the scheduled inauguration of the first phase of the expressway project.

Police said a large crowd of farmers gathered at Hemigepura near Bangalore on Saturday evening and staged a demonstration on the peripheral road, which is due to be thrown open to traffic on June 16. Later, the crowd went out of control and dug up trenches on the road using the earth excavator belonging to the project developers Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE).

Apart from the delay in release of compensation amount by the Government, the farmers were also cut up with the promoters for their failure to provide service road to the villagers. With NICE planning to fence the peripheral ring road, the farmers contended that they will be denied of access to the road.

The controversial BMIC project, which is already facing a hostile take-over bid by the Karnataka Government, has turned murkier with the recent incident of digging up of a portion of the road. The BMIC project envisages construction of a 111-km long world class expressway between Bangalore and Mysore, besides construction of five townships enroute.

Though NICE officials lodged a complaint with the police against the miscreants, NICE Managing Director Ashok Kheny told reporters that Saturday evening’s ugly incident will not come in the way of scheduled inauguration of the first phase of the project. “The first phase of the project comprising a link road between Kanakapura and Kengeri will be thrown open to traffic on June 16 as scheduled”, he said.

He sought to clarify that NICE had already deposited the land acquisition money with the Government. “It is the Government, which should pay the villagers the compensation amount. That apart, some of the villagers are expecting us to mend their roads, which is not possible for us to do”, he said.