NICE to be hauled up for hiking toll

The state government has decided to take action against Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) for hiking the toll on its toll roads.

Additional Chief Secretary M Lakshminarayana said a notice will be issued to NICE, the promoter of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project, for revising the toll without the government’s permission.

“The promoter has to obtain permission from the government before increasing the toll. Its action amounts to violation of the project framework agreement,” he told DH.

NICE recently increased the toll by 14% to 25 %. The company is collecting toll on 41 km of peripheral road and 9.1 km of link road.

The toll has been increased after a gap of four years. Law Minister T B Jayachandra is learnt to have held a meeting with the officials of Law and PWD departments on the toll hike and directed the PWD to issue notice to the company.

According to PWD officials, the company was supposed to construct concrete roads (pavement for expressway, link road and peripheral road) and complete the work within 10 years from the initial financial closure, on March 29, 2003. Accordingly, the concrete road work should have been completed by March 2012.

As the company did not construct concrete pavement road, the PWD had slapped a default notice last year. It was given 180 days’ time to rectify the lapse. But the promoter obtained a stay from the high court.

The report of the Joint House Committee that went into irregularities in implementing BMIC project has also mentioned FWA violation in the concrete road construction.