NICE begins Toll for Bangalore-Mysore expressway

Bangalore: Toll will be levied from December 18 on two stretches on the Bangalore side of the BMICP (Bangalore-Mysore expressway), according to an announcement by NICE Ltd, the company building and operating the corridor project.

The two sections are only about a third of the project and the main 111-km expressway up to Mysore is far from over.

NICE, the special vehicle for the Kalyani group-promoted Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project or BMICP, said it was waiting for the State Government to release land for the next two phases.

The company has spent Rs 1500 crore on the construction of these two sections, for which “Legally, everything is clear,” a spokesman said.

NICE said it would start collecting toll from Thursday from motorists using the 41-km peripheral road semi-circling Bangalore and the 9.1-km link road. The peripheral road connects NH4 and NH7 and runs from IT hub at Hosur Road up to Magadi Road, except near the Gottigere lake, where the company has contested in court that a construction is in its path.

The rates on each of the different stretches amount to Rs 7-18 for two-wheelers; Rs 19-44 for cars; Rs 48-119 for buses; and Rs 52-77 for trucks for 2008. Toll plazas were being set up for some time and the interchanges at Mysore Road and Kanakapura Road would be opened soon, the spokesman said.

The two roads form phase-1 of the Rs 2500-crore project that was approved in 1994 and taken up for construction in 1999. The project, which includes 111-km toll way and five townships along the route, has been riddled with controversies and environmental and legal tussles that are still ongoing.

“We have substantially completed Peripheral Road and Link Road sections of the BMICP,” the release said.