Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

3. Before we deal with the allegations and the prayers made in the three writ petitions, it is necessary to refer to the background in which the project came to be allotted to Nandi and also to the previous litigation relating thereto.

4. Bangalore is the State capital and Mysore is an important tourist centre and also a fast developing city both in commerce and industry. The distance between these two cities is about 130 kms. and the traffic intensity is very high. Since the traffic between these two cities is very dense, smooth movement of traffic is a big problem and accidents are on the increase. A proposal was mooted as far back in the year 1988 to provide an Expressway between the two cities. A project report was prepared for getting the work executed through a private entrepreneur who would spend his own money and recover the same in regard to the expenditure, maintenance, profits, etc., by collection of tolls. Tenders were also invited and in response to this advertisement only one tender was received with some stringent conditions. The bidder demanded that, amongst others, the cost of land acquisition should be borne by the Government and that the bidder be protected by ensuring that there would be no competing road development by the State and its agencies affecting the revenue of the Project. The condition imposed was that the State Highway Nos. 17 and 86 should not be improved from their State in which they then existed other than the routine surface maintenance. As this was not possible the proposal was kept in abeyance. A proposal was then mooted to develop Bangalore as a Mega City and it was proposed to improve some of the towns around Bangalore as a counter magnet to Bangalore City. Under this scheme expressway between Bangalore and Mysore was also considered. An investigation was taken up by the Asian Development Bank and as per the report submitted by it there was need to improve the corridor between Bangalore and Mysore because the population of Bangalore city was likely to be more than eight million by the year 2011. The report also suggested that the State Government should bear 20% of the cost of this Project along with the cost of land acquisition. It appears that the State Government was not possessed of sufficient means and, therefore, it wanted the project to be taken up by some private agency on B.O.O.T. ("Build-Own-Operate and Transfer") basis. In other words, the Government wanted the project to be taken up by some consortium from its own resources and get back and expenditure and profits through the collection of tolls.