NICE offers to build 19 km of Peripheral Ring Road

Bengaluru: Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), which spent more than a decade to build a 41-kilometre, six-lane expressway, has offered to take on a part of the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project.

Sources revealed that a delegation led by Ashok Kheny met with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar to propose constructing a 19-kilometre stretch from Tumakuru Road to Ballari Road, connecting the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

This meeting comes at a time when the 74-kilometre PRR, forming a semi-circle around Bengaluru's periphery, has received no bids in the three tenders floated by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) over the past three years.

What can be noted is that the company has picked the 19-km stretch leading to the airport, which has a potential for better toll collection as compared to other portions of the PRR alignment where the Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) runs in parallel.

"We have offered to build 19 km of a six-lane road by acquiring about 500 acres without government funding," Kheny, managing director of NICE and former Congress MLA, told DH.

However, the government is unlikely to accept the offer without following tender procedures.

In addition, the execution of the NICE Road project has been controversial, with accusations that the framework agreement has been violated by acquiring excess land, charging toll without completing the project, and illegal quarrying.

2016 report 

A 2016 report by a Karnataka legislature house committee recommended a probe by the CBI, Enforcement Directorate or Central Vigilance Commission into the irregularities in the NICE project and directed the government to halt the toll collection.

Kheny dismissed these charges, stating that the house committee conducted the probe without considering their perspective. He added that accusations are quick to arise because "they treat us like an ATM machine".