With the ministries of finance and law not agreeing to the road ministry?s proposal for rescheduling of the premium payments by road developers to help them tide over the difficult financial situation, the matter is set to be referred to a Committee of Secretaries headed by the Cabinet secretary
The road ministry and the NHAI, which favoured the re-scheduling, pointed out that this would salvage as many as 25 projects that have a combined premium payment obligation of Rs 98,115 crore.
NHAI chairman RP Singh told FE that the authority has written to the road transport and highways minister CP Joshi for this facility and urged him to take up the matter at the CoS level. Once rescheduling is allowed, it will a give a respite to developers who are facing delays.
?We would soon be raising the matter at the CoS level as the joint secretary level interaction with the law ministry was not in our favour. Even the finance ministry has raised objections, but we will now leave the matter for the CoS to decide,? a road ministry official said.
NHAI warned that large amounts of premium revenue from highway builders would be in jeopardy if the reschedule is not allowed. The law ministry, on the other hand, said that already signed deals can not be reopened. Besides, the same question is dealt with by the Delhi HC in the GMR case, the ministry noted.
If these projects are called off then developers would not only fail to meet the bid conditions, but the entire public-private partnership model in the road sector could be in trouble, feel the road ministry and NHAI.?We are trying to salvage contracts that are in favour of the government and it will be against public interest to terminate the contracts,? Singh said.
The NHAI proposal, supported by the highway ministry, was to allow many
developers, including GMR and GVK, to postpone
premium payment for projects that have now become unviable due to economic slowdown and delays in land acquisition and environment clearance.
