Bangalore, June 16 (IANS) A 9.1 km stretch of the ambitious 111-km Bangalore-Mysore highway project was inaugurated Friday amid tight security and with the media out in full force - but with the state government staying away.

Though the "soft launch" was meant to be a low-key affair, project executor Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Ltd. turned it into a high-profile event by inviting hundreds of people from nearby villages to witness the religious rites and chanting of vedic hymns at the inaugural ceremony of the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) at Thalaghattapura, about 30 km from here.

With a defiant state government staying away from the function despite an invitation from NICE, its managing director Ashok Kheny asked a dozen children and aged people to cut the ribbon tied across the road, break coconuts and light traditional lamps.

"We have decided to go ahead with the auspicious function as scheduled though the state public works department (PWD) has directed us to cancel it on the ground that the road quality work was neither inspected nor certified by its officials.

"The state government has been contradicting itself by asking us first not to hold the function and in the same breath assuring us in writing Thursday that it would allot the required land in accordance with a Supreme Court directive in April," Kheny told reporters on the sidelines of the function.

Hoping the state government would reconcile to the Rs.28.5 billion mega project and not attempt to take it over through legislation, Kheny said the 111-km expressway would be completed by December 2007 provided the remaining land (2,450 acres) was handed over to the company.

In spite of the apex court upholding the consortium's right to complete the project, the ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his son, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, have locked horns with NICE over the issue of "excess land" allegedly grabbed by the promoters for real estate development along the corridor.

The proposed legislation, however, did not find favour with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the coalition partner in the state. The BJP agreed to go with the JD-S if the government was ready to take over only the "excess land" and not the entire project.

Denying his government was tinkering with the project, Kumaraswamy said measures were being taken only to protect farmers' interests.

Opposition parties, led by the Congress, accused Kumaraswamy of stalling the project as he and his family members had farm lands adjacent to the corridor.

Meanwhile, business leader and Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka Vijay Mallya criticised the state government for putting a spoke in the corridor project.

"I don't understand why politics should get into the way of infrastructure, which is badly required and in which world class companies are contributing significantly to our economy," Mallya told reporters on the sidelines of the two-day India Innovation Summit 2006, organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).