In 1995, the Janata Dal led government approved the construction of a 164-km expressway to connect Mysuru and Bengaluru, along with the development of peripheral roads, and five new townships in Bengaluru, Bidadi, Ramanagara and Mandya, with around 18,000 acres earmarked for roads and townships. The entire project was called the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project.

An MoU was signed with a consortium headed by Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) Limited. A Framework Agreement (FWA) to implement the project was signed between NICE and the state government on 3 April 1997. According to the FWA, a total of 20,193 acres of land were to be handed over to NICE, wherein 6,999 acres were required for a toll road and 13,194 acres for townships. Of the 20,193 acres, 6,956 acres were government land and 13,237 acres were private land. The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) issued acquisition notifications for an enormous 26,488 acres of land, far exceeding the initially estimated 2,700 acres.

On 14 October 1998, an agreement was signed between NICE and the KIADB for acquiring land. The same year, KIADB issued notices to farmers for the acquisition of land. However, until 2010, NICE had acquired only 7,000 acres. The delay in land acquisition can be attributed to protests over what farmers deem unfair compensation for their fertile lands.

As of March 2019, only a four-kilometre stretch of the expressway, 41 kilometres of the peripheral road and 8.5 kilometres of the link road had been constructed by NICE. There were inordinate delays in the execution and completion of the project following numerous litigations filed by several farmers, alleging corruption and illegalities in the acquisition process. Meanwhile, the KIADB had not withdrawn its notice of land acquisition, leaving the farmers in a state of uncertainty about the status of their lands.

In the course of over 20 years, land prices around Bengaluru and Mysuru had also skyrocketed. A 2010 report quotes a senior NICE official as saying that farmers were paid about Rs 7.5 lakh per acre for land around Mysuru at the start of the decade. By 2016, the land price in the area went up to Rs 5070 lakh per acre, according to a property consultant. Farmers estimate the rate to be even higher. "The government is offering just Rs 85,000 per acre against the market rate of more than Rs 2 crore. This is an insult to us," a farmer told a news daily during a protest.

The farmers had demanded denotification of land that was not acquired and fair compensation, based on market price, for notified land that will be acquired. Successive governments have failed to either expedite the project completion or take legal action against the company, or cancel the MoU. The House Committee of the state legislature submitted a report claiming massive corruption and recommended scrapping of the MoU, along with denotifying the lands and returning them to the farmers. This report was not available in the public domain. Other reports, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment and Social Impact Assessment, pertaining to the project are all classified.

In 2023, National Highway 275 was upgraded into an expressway and later designated as an “access-controlled highway ,” making much of the original NICE plan largely unnecessary. In October 2024, many farmers and activists opposed the revival of the project and asked the government to work on paying compensation rather than reviving the project as it is not in the interest of the public.

In the same period, the Karnataka government announced that the Bidadi township would be developed through a joint venture model with farmers, utilising 12,000 acres of currently unused land.

As of September 2025, only 49 km of the proposed 64-km toll road around Bengaluru has been completed. The five planned townships remain stalled, and large portions of the acquired land continue to lie idle due to ongoing litigation and public opposition.

In July 2025, the Karnataka High Court, led by Justice R. Devdas, quashed the acquisition notifications issued between 1998 and 2009. The court ruled in favour of the petitions filed by P Manjunatha Reddy and others, noting that no award had been passed to date and none of the petitioners’ land had been utilised for the proposed expressway, interchanges, toll plaza, peripheral road, or link road.

In September 2025, retired inspector CA Siddalingaiah filed a complaint alleging that 79 acres and 7 guntas in Survey No. 86, Kodigehalli, legally transferred to NICE through KIADB orders from 1999 to 2002, were targeted using forged Aadhaar details and fake 1954-55 land-grant records. Although earlier probes found the documents bogus, a 2025 Special DC order reportedly favoured the accused, and police are yet to file an FIR.