HOT TOPICS

SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES

Govt considering booting NICE for BMIC

106

Written By shas3n - 29 July, 2007

BMIC Bangalore Infrastructure

In a not-so-unexpected move, the Govt announced that it plans to replace NICE as the contractor for BMIC with a new consortium called GIC. (Source DH, VK)

"GIC has put forth a proposal indicating that it would accept the terms and conditions of the framework agreement of April 3, 1997 signed between Karnataka and NICE and would pay the cost of existing infrastructure as evaluated by an independent agency while taking over the project on as-is-where-is-basis."

Govt claims that NICE was asking for too much more land than actually needed and had real estate interests (Duh!). The new consortium is being projected as all benevolent and not-so greedy. GIC promises to finish the project in time or pay for it. They are also funding a Mono line at no additional costs. Of course the Govt does not talk about the investment NICE has already made and how will that be made up in case the GIC gets the project.

I seriously doubt if GIC has any less vested interests in the project than NICE did. They only difference seems to be that GIC is in good books of those at power.

Of course the court still has to approve this change and given the track record NICE has had in legal battles, it seems unlikely that this change will ever happen.

Its really sad to see tax payers' money and valuable time being wasted like this. It no secret that if NICE gets what it wants, its not the farmers that are affected. A lot of people who are in power have a lot to loose too. Thats the reason for all the drama.

Lets wait and see what more tricks all these clowns have up their sleeves.

COMMENTS

SKIL - a company with good Gowda connections!?

silkboard - 29 July, 2007 - 07:12

Who exactly are they? This GIC thing includes them as well. Remember that SKIL got Nandagudi SEZ, are reportedly front runners for getting SEZs at Ramanagaram/Solur as well. And now this BMIC bid (oh, Swiss challenge). Is a new type of high-flying construction cartel emerging around Bangalore? I wouldn't award so many satellite/peripheral development projects around Bangalore to a single interest like that. That would be like SKIL laying a wall around Bangalore :) But, having said that, this is a good development. Puts some pressure on NICE to perhaps make some concessions and move on. More important, we may now see more transparency in the whole muddle and skeletons could come flying out of the closets.

Interesting Stuff

tsubba - 29 July, 2007 - 21:10

This what Kheny had to say

No company
“Global Infrastructure is the name they’ve given for the consortium... there’s no such company registered. In fact, members who the government claims are part of the consortium have already written to us saying that their names have been fraudulently used by SKIL” Ashok Kheny, MD, NICE told Deccan Herald. The State, by filing an additional affidavit, has informed the Supreme Court that it had received a suo moto proposal from a consortium, the net worth of which runs over Rs 10 lakh crore.

Contempt case
The company has filed a contempt case against seven senior State Government officers, including Chief Secretary P B Mahishi and Revenue Secretary S M Jaamdar. The hearing of the case will come up on Monday. Reacting to the consortium’s offer to develop a Rs 1,700-crore monorail link, Kheny said NICE had already made an offer to the government to develop a monorail at around Rs 8,000 crore.
“Where’s the sanctity of the original agreement? This super-corrupt government is penalising someone because he has only refused to pay bribes,” he said.

here are some sources on the Swiss Challenge

Handling Unsolicited Proposals
Unsolicited Proposals(PDF)
Swiss Challenge System

 From what I understood Swiss challenge is for unsolicited project proposals. I dunno if you can challenge an already tendered project which is under execution. see if you guys can make any sense..

you are onto something

tsubba - 29 July, 2007 - 21:57

Kheny in today's DH

Alleging that the Global Infrastructure Consortium (GIC) is a phony company, the NICE chief said he would be writing a letter to the United States State Department and Commerce Secretary for action to be initiated against the firm for false claims.

“SKIL (Seaking Infrastructure Limited) is headed by Nikhil Gandhi. The State government has connived with him to make an offer on the project. He is the same person who had bid for the Nandagudi SEZ. The State Government has assured him of the SEZ only if they bid for the BMIC project,” Mr Kheny noted.
NICE has also alleged that the Gujarat government had cancelled a project by SKIL for setting up a SEZ after the SC ruled that SKIL had indulged in unfair/unethical trade practices.

 

BMIC? What BMIC? says consortium members

shas3n - 31 July, 2007 - 07:00

This news article (in Kannada) mentions Mr. Kheni's reactions to this issue. Apparently few of the companies that are claimed to be members of GIC have written to NICE saying they are not involved with GIC at all and their names have been pulled in without their concent. Moreover few of the companies also have no clearance from RBI to invest in India.

This letter has been submitted to SC and a hearing is expected soon.

I wont be surprised if it turns out to be true that GIC is a fake entity and SKIL has 'underhand' dealings with someone at power.

-Shastri

View Narasimha Shastri's profile on LinkedIn

BMIC

venkatesh - 13 August, 2007 - 10:08

Its good move from the Government to take over the BMIC project from the NICE and hand it over to a company which processes transparent and also which is willing to handover the excess land that has been acquired by the NICE from the poor farmers. And let the poor farmers be freed from the NICE since they have been struggling in their hands from last 12 years. NICE is not allowing to either develop the land for the farmers or they are not able to sell their own land and for the land which costs about Rs. 5 crore per acre the NICE is paying a huge amount of Rs. 12.5 acre. I think its a great achivement by the NICE by geeting the project..

PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES

Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!