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Govt considering booting NICE for BMIC

29 July 2007 - 11:28am — shas3n
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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

silkboard's picture

SKIL - a company with good Gowda connections!?

silkboard - 29 Jul 2007 - 12:42pm
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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.
tsubba's picture

Interesting Stuff

tsubba - 30 Jul 2007 - 2:40am
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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..

tsubba's picture

you are onto something

tsubba - 30 Jul 2007 - 3:27am
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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.

 

shas3n's picture

BMIC? What BMIC? says consortium members

shas3n - 31 Jul 2007 - 12:30pm
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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

-Shastri

venkatesh's picture

BMIC

venkatesh (not verified) - 13 Aug 2007 - 3:38pm
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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..
shas3n's picture

Transparent?

shas3n - 13 Aug 2007 - 3:48pm
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We and the farmers will equally be happy if the new company under consideration is indeed has transparent processes. If you read the above comments, SKIL infrastructure seems to be getting all the good projects unexplicably easily from Karnataka Govt. Moreover, the new 'Consortium' has been using names of other companies without their approval or participation. That surely is anything but transparent. As I mention in my post, nobody is really keen on gaurding the farmers' interest. It is most certainly true that this has put the poor farmers with a lot of invonvenience. But handing over the project from NICE to some other phoney company is surely not the solution that will benefit the farmer. I am no fan of NICE. I am neutral about them. But I am surely negative about these new consultants. -Shastri

-Shastri

Girish's picture

NICE has to stop making

Girish (not verified) - 14 Aug 2007 - 12:32pm
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NICE has to stop making statements as a politician such that he is having pity towards farmers and he came back to india to serve the people of bangalore and all such sentimental dailouges. He is giving statements as a film dailougues. All of them knows that no one will work without personal intension. Let him sit for a open discussion with the government and sort out the issue and give some relief to the farmers. And i belive strongly that Devegowdas family has no land in so called the excess land if also if they have land in that area they would not have to fight so much to get denotified. This is the only case where Devegowda is not changing his mind and he is backing the farmers and we should appreciate him for his effort and ask NICE to provide some relief to the pity farmers and let them give chance to farmers to see good world
silkboard's picture

open discussion?

silkboard - 14 Aug 2007 - 1:15pm
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That is the whole thing Girish - neither the govt nor NICE are "open" about many things here. that actually hurts both the parties, we could wrongly be thinking its Mr Gowda fighting for his land, or its Mr Kheny for unjust profits. Now, if Mr Kheny is indeed fighting for his profits, what is wrong with that? After all, he bet on Bangalore's growth long before SKIL or Mr Gowda himself imagined Bangalore could be a such an important job center one day. If Bangalore had not grown this wildly, or had gone down instead of going up - instead of accusing him to be a profiteer, we would be making fun of Mr Kheny right now. I am not taking sides here, but I see people picking the wrong points in this fight. The point is about Govt signing an agreement and then not keeping its word. If they signed on the wrong papers or made a mistake, let the signatory first stand up and apologize to public saying "sorry I screwed up" (or "I shouldn't have taken the kickback then"). It is about not obeying court's orders. Law of the land comes first. But instead, this project has become an example of how easy it is for governments to impede projects no matter what stage they are in - there is absolutely no continuity or consistency on decisions and actions across governments damnit. Answer above questions first, and then we can go into whether its about Gowda's land or Kheny's money.
Visitor's picture

Whats wrong in transferring

Visitor (not verified) - 14 Aug 2007 - 5:56pm
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Whats wrong in transferring the project from NICE to the GIC? suppose think that you are working in a company and if another company approches you with higher package than the previous company what will you do?? you will either sit with the previous company managers and ask for the same compensation which the new company has agreed to pay if they reject your offer then you you will be going to join the new company... thats the story of this NICE and GIC thats it...

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