NICE Dream In The Dock? Karnataka HC Questions 'Near-Zero Progress' Of 25-Year-Old Infra Corridor

Last Updated:January 14, 2026, 07:30 IST

The Karnataka HC rapped the project for accomplishing only 1 km of the proposed 111-km corridor in the last two decades and said the state government should consider abandoning it

The NICE Road in Bengaluru, part of the larger BMIC project, saw its first stretch inaugurated on June 16, 2006. (Image: PTI/File)

The Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor, commonly known as the ‘NICE’ corridor, has faced a significant setback as the Karnataka High Court criticised the project’s lack of progress and told the state government to consider abandoning it.

The Karnataka High Court reprimanded the project for accomplishing just 1 km of the proposed 111-km corridor in the last two decades. Additionally, the court noted, none of the five satellite townships planned since 1995 to decongest Bengaluru have been realised.

The ruling Congress in Karnataka told the high court that little could be done as the issue is pending before the Supreme Court. During the last winter session of the state assembly, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar said “even if he wanted to do anything, it could not be done as the matter is in the SC".

The project had faced strong opposition from former prime minister Deve Gowda. After years of political and legal battles, he withdrew from his campaign against the project citing poor health and increasing disillusionment.

WHAT DID THE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT SAY?

The Karnataka High Court suggested that the state government should consider abandoning the BMIC project, pointing out that the project has largely remained on paper for nearly 30 years.

“The population of the city is more than 1.4 crore. The snarling traffic and traffic jams are the order of the day. It takes hours to travel a small distance in the city. The infrastructure facilities are crumbling down. The environment is badly affected," the court observed. “The state government must take necessary decisions for fresh planning by discarding the FWA of the project at the earliest to ameliorate the living conditions of the city."

A division bench of Justice DK Singh and Justice Venkatesh Naik expressed hope that an informed decision will soon be made. It highlighted that while the core expressway remains incomplete, the project proponents have constructed peripheral roads and toll plazas.

“The project proponents are collecting huge tolls by constructing peripheral roads and toll plazas. They are sitting on a huge land bank, but without its proper use as the expressway has not yet been constructed, and there is no sign of it being constructed in future. Therefore, we direct the state government to relook the project and take appropriate steps in this regard," the bench observed.

The HC was blunt with its remarks, saying a project intended to decongest Bengaluru had ended up clogging the judicial system instead.

“This project, instead of declogging and decongesting the city by developing five townships on the Bangalore-Mysore corridor, has clogged and congested the high court and other courts," it said.

Highlighting the slow progress of the project, the court said in more than 25 years, only 1 km of the total 111-km expressway has been built, making a strong case for terminating it.

The high court made the remarks while dismissing a petition filed by a resident, Chandrika, from Benson Town in Bengaluru, who sought compensation from NICE Ltd and the state government. The project was to be executed after a framework agreement (FWA) was signed with NICE in 1997; hence, the name NICE corridor. This was one of many cases associated with this project.

The court said the petitioner had concealed the fact that she had already received Rs 51.36 lakh as compensation in 2007 by signing an indemnity bond for full and final settlement for the acquisition of three acres and 23 guntas near Kengeri in Bengaluru.

The bench did not hold back in its criticism of the project. Reflecting on the project’s original vision, it observed that the “beautiful and futuristic" idea of decongesting the city, as outlined in the project technical report (PTR) of 1995, had been “killed" — to the detriment of citizens and the environment. Keeping the BMIC alive, it said, served no purpose when the expressway project had made minimal progress and the traffic burden persisted.

WHAT DID THE KARNATAKA GOVT SAY?

At the last winter session of the legislature, when Congress MLC Madhu G Madegowda raised the issue in the legislative council at Belagavi in December 2025, Shivakumar said the government could neither discontinue nor alter the BMIC project due to binding Supreme Court judgments.

“Even if I want to drop it, I cannot do it as there is a three-bench judgment. But the local-level issues, including plan sanction for the construction of houses, can be sorted out through the legal authorities concerned," Shivakumar said, adding that even the local MLA had approached him with similar requests.

Shivakumar, who also holds the Bengaluru development portfolio, read out portions of the SC ruling and said the state had no authority to add to, subtract from, or scrap the project. He was responding to Madegowda’s demand to discontinue the project, especially since the Bengaluru-Mysuru six-lane expressway is already operational.

Madegowda suggested that the land identified for acquisition under the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority should be returned if the NICE project is no longer serving its purpose. Shivakumar said applications for land conversion pending at the district commissioner’s office, including those submitted online, will be examined and a technical opinion provided for now.

WHY DID FORMER PM DEVE GOWDA OBJECT?

Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda vehemently opposed the BMIC project, not only because he was against an expressway but because he believed the project had become a means for excessive and unjustified land acquisition, largely at the expense of farmers.

Despite repeated court interventions and years of protests by farmers, particularly against the project’s promoter, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), Deve Gowda maintained that no meaningful corrective action was taken.

His main allegation was that NICE acquired far more land than necessary for the expressway and related infrastructure, creating a large land bank that, according to him, was being commercially exploited while the main project remained incomplete. He repeatedly stressed that while only a small stretch of the proposed expressway had been built over decades, NICE was allowed to construct peripheral roads and toll plazas and collect toll.

The former PM argued that the project had deviated from its original purpose and had effectively become a land-driven venture rather than a public infrastructure project. His opposition intensified after 2004, when farmers from Kanakapura – then part of his parliamentary constituency and a region through which a large portion of the project passes – complained that excess land had been notified and acquired. He took up their grievances, accusing the company of land grab and urging the government to withdraw surplus land that he claimed had no connection to the expressway. 

The controversy dates back to 1995, when he, as CM, signed the agreement for the BMIC project with a consortium that later transferred its rights to NICE. At the time, Siddaramaiah was in the JD(S) and was the state finance minister, and the finance department had approved the project.

Deve Gowda later contended that the project was subsequently altered in scope and intent, particularly regarding land acquisition, and that these changes were never part of the original agreement. As his criticism grew, he demanded a CBI probe into the project, alleging collusion between the company and sections of the political establishment.

He accused successive governments of protecting NICE and allowing the project to drag on for decades, even as farmers lost land without seeing the promised expressway materialise. The dispute eventually reached the courts after NICE filed a defamation case against him over remarks he made during a television interview in 2011, where he described the BMIC project as “a loot".

In 2021, a Bengaluru sessions court ordered Deve Gowda to pay Rs 2 crore in damages to NICE for loss of reputation, holding that he had failed to substantiate his allegations made during the 2011 interview. The court ruled the remarks defamatory, though he maintained that his opposition to the project was based on public interest and farmer grievances. He later expressed anguish at being drawn into prolonged legal battles even in his old age.

At the core, his objection remained the same: that the BMIC project had deviated from its stated purpose, accumulated excessive land, failed to deliver the promised expressway, and continued despite sustained opposition from farmers and repeated judicial scrutiny. In 2025, he questioned why he had been named in an SC petition related to the BMIC project, criticising the state government for involving him in new litigation.

WHAT IS THE NICE/BMIC PROJECT?

The BMIC project was conceived in 1995, when the Karnataka government under then CM HD Deve Gowda approved a plan for a high-speed expressway connecting Bengaluru and Mysuru, considering the future expansion of both cities.

A memorandum of understanding was signed with NICE to build a four-lane expressway, with provisions for expansion to six lanes. The project also included developing five satellite townships along the corridor.

The NICE Road in Bengaluru, part of the larger BMIC project, saw its first stretch – a 9-km section of the Peripheral Road connecting Mysore Road and Kanakapura Road – inaugurated on June 16, 2006. Subsequent sections were opened in phases, linking major arterial roads such as Tumakuru Road, Mysore Road, Bannerghatta Road, Hosur Road and Kanakapura Road, operating as a private tolled corridor. Since then, there has been no real progress.

ANOTHER BENGALURU-MYSURU EXPRESSWAY

While the NICE Road remained in limbo, a parallel six-lane Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway was conceptualised during CM Siddaramaiah’s first term between 2013 and 2018.

The Congress government reworked the corridor as a state-led, access-controlled expressway moving away from the stalled BMIC/NICE model. While the project’s alignment and land acquisition were pushed during that phase, construction gathered pace later under the subsequent BJP government.

The state expressway was eventually inaugurated on March 12, 2023, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when the BJP was in power in Karnataka, just weeks ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.

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