First phase of BMIC road thrown open to traffic amid Government opposition

The first phase of the controversial Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) was thrown open to vehicular traffic on Friday afternoon.

A section of the peripheral ring road, measuring about 9 kms, was inaugurated with a simple ceremony, attended by more than 10,000 people from nearby villages, at the Clover Leaf Interchange near the Hemmigepura village on the outskirts of Bangalore.

Ashok K Kheny, Managing Director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which is implementing the project, told reporters that Friday afternoon’s inauguration of the BMIC project’s first phase was a “soft launch” with the entire stretch of peripheral ring road measuring 26 kms, scheduled for completion by August 15.

But, the lead-up to the soft launch of BMIC’s first phase was marked by high drama. Barely hours before the soft opening of the portion of peripheral ring road, the Karnataka Government dispatched a notice to NICE, cautioning the private promoter against going ahead with the scheduled inauguration on Friday without the mandatory clearance from the Public Works Department (PWD) of the State Government.

But, Kheny brushed aside the notice issued by the Government late on Thursday evening. “PWD interprets things in the way most convenient to them. I have complied with all rules and regulations. There will be violation of any rules if a portion of the peripheral ring road is opened as planned”, he told reporters.

Kheny’s angry reaction came after he received a notice from the Additional Chief Secretary of Karnataka Government cautioning him against throwing open the road to traffic till PWD checks for its traffic-worthiness. The notice said “You are requested to please furnish the detailed completion report of the project comprising all items of works carried out, along with plans, designs, drawings etc as per the framework agreement for further needful in the matter. Hope, till the fulfillment of the aforesaid requirements, you will not proceed further towards opening the road for traffic as you intended”.

On Thursday evening, a day before the scheduled soft opening, NICE had to contend with agitated farmers of Hemmigepura, who were blocking the road demanding the construction of a link road from the peripheral road to their village. A few unidentified miscreants even dug a trench on the road and carted away material kept for road construction.

Police was soon summoned to the spot and the agitated crowd was pacified to withdraw their protest. NICE officials even managed to retrieve the material and refill the freshly dug up trench.
An obviously peeved Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy confessed that he was “too small a man” to stop the launch. He told a meeting in Bangalore that “No one has checked the road quality. The company is so big that we don’t even have the rights to check the quality. They have full control over the road and the area. It is a bad issue, let us not discuss it any further”, he said.

The inauguration of the first phase of the BMIC project come at a time when the coalition partners JD (S) and BJP are divided over their approach to the issue.