Bengaluru: 'Don’t pay toll,' HD Kumaraswamy urges NICE road users citing HC judgment

Union Heavy Industries and Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Sunday urged motorists using Bengaluru’s NICE Road to stop paying toll, citing strong observations by the Karnataka High Court on the project and its operator, Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE).

“No one should pay toll. NICE is collecting toll illegally,” Kumaraswamy told reporters in Mysuru. He said the government advocate appearing before the High Court had conveyed the illegality to the bench.

NICE operates a 41-km peripheral road and an 8-km link road connecting Tumakuru Road to Hosur Road through the Mysuru and Kanakapura corridors. The company revised toll rates from July 1, 2026.


Kumaraswamy, who represents Mandya in the Lok Sabha and is a former CM, alleged that NICE had collected more than Rs 2,000 crore in toll over the years. He cited the High Court’s July 29 judgment, which contained strong criticism of the implementation of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).

The High Court on July 29 dismissed appeals by NICE and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), upholding a single judge’s July 4, 2025 order in the long-running dispute over the project.

A division bench of Justices DK Singh and TM Nadaf said the material before it indicated that land acquired for a public infrastructure project had been commercially exploited in violation of the Framework Agreement (FWA), while thousands of landowners remained without compensation for decades.

In particularly strong observations, the bench said the project had benefited its proponents “at the expense of the landowners and the public interest”. It said the material warranted an independent assessment, forensic audit of the accounts and investigation into alleged fraud and other irregularities.

The bench also questioned the role of the state government, observing that it had doubts whether such an investigation would be undertaken because “the State itself is accomplice” in allowing the project proponents to allegedly earn large profits through diversion of land, toll collection and other activities.

The court also pointed to the slow progress of the project, noting that only about 5 km of a proposed 111-km expressway had been completed over 25-26 years, while the project proponents had benefited from a land bank exceeding 20,000 acres.

The bench questioned why the state had not reviewed or cancelled the project and said the material before it warranted an independent forensic audit and investigation into the project’s implementation.