JOIN USPWD stakes claim to NICE land after lease term
The PWD in its agenda copy for the high-level committee meeting, which was abruptly put off recently, has stated that the project company had the right to develop commercial properties and sell to the extent of only 5,894 acres, that too in the townships only, as per the affidavit filed by company before the court in the Somashekar Reddy case.
“Therefore it is necessary to identify the land that will be reverted and that will be commercially developed for a smooth handing over of the land to the company,” the PWD said. This information had to be obtained from the NICEL (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Limited) only, it added.
The toll road component includes the 111-km Bangalore-Mysore Expressway, Link Road and Peripheral Road around Bangalore.
The company is demanding that the government should execute the sale deed in its favour in respect of 1,069 acres of private land and 4,976 acre of government land already handed over to it for the project. This land comes mainly under the toll road component.
Interestingly, the State Government has already executed the sale deed for 1,077 acres in the last six years -- from October 20, 2003 to October 16, 2009.
Quoting a Government Order dated November 20, 1995 issued on accepting the Project Technical Report from the then Consortium, the PWD said land would be provided for a lease period of 30 years from the date of completion of the Expressway, including Link Road and peripheral Road, and after which, the facility would be reverted to the government.
“If all the lands were handed over to the project company on the sale deed basis, the words ‘lease period’ become meaningless,” the department noted.
Joint measurement
Further, the PWD said it would give the green signal to the KIADB for issuing the final notification to acquire land for Sections B and C of the project, only after the joint measurement of land.
“It has to be verified whether already notified (preliminary notification) lands for implementation of section B and C of the project are as per the Outline Development Plan (ODP) dated February 12, 2004. Preliminary notification has been issued well before the ODP was finalised -- between 1998 and 2003. Therefore, it is necessary to verify the alignment,” the department opined.
The PWD has apprised the committee that the company had shown only the thematic alignment of the toll roads in the ODP and that the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority (BMICAPA) had no clue about the government and private lands coming under the project.