The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) that the company will not be able to get possession of land for undertaking the ambitious multi-thousand crore Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP) till the issue of land compensation was resolved. A three-judge Bench headed by Justice R M Lodha refused to hear further a contempt petition filed by NICE seeking action against the State government for failing to acquire land for the project. “If the compensation issue is not settled, nothing will be done. How can the possession be given,” the bench, also comprising Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice H L Gokhale, said. “Unless you (parties) are able to find out solution to the compensation, we can’t issue any direction,” the Bench said. Senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for the company, submitted that the State government was not implementing the apex court’s order passed in 2006, settling the issues pertaining to the project and acquisition of 20,193 acres of land. He objected to the fixing of price at Rs 40 lakh per acre by the district committee chaired by deputy commissioner, Bangalore for the land acquired in section A of the project, for laying 41 km peripheral and 9.8 km link roads near the city. As the counsel told the court that the fixing of price has been challenged before the Karnataka High Court, the Bench said that it would hear the petition only after the issue of compensation to be paid to the land owners was resolved. At the outset, the Bench asked Dave to explain how he sought contempt action against the State government or where he found disobedience of the apex court order with regard to the project. The counsel alleged that the politicians of the State had acted mala fide to stall the project. “Large tracts of land meant to be acquired for the project are allowed to be registered by land sharks,” he contended, referring to the statement of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, in which he allegedly vowed to stall the project. Senior advocate U U Lalit, appearing for the State government, on the other hand, submitted that as per the framework agreement and the apex court’s judgement, an extent of 2,193 acres of land was to be given for peripheral road, whereas the total extent of land already handed over to the company as on date was 2,747 acres, which was an excess of 554 acres. After the issue of final notification, price has been fixed for an extent of more than 1,300 acres of land for township I in Bidadi for which the required compensation was still awaited from the project company, before the handing over of land, he said. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for different land owners, also claimed that the company had been given excess land. The BMICP conceives an expressway along with the infrastructure corridor between Bangalore and Mysore. The project - to come up on 20,193 acres - also envisages development of five townships.