The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has resolved 60 disputes with the highway contractors or concessionaires in 2021-22 for Rs 4,076 crore against Rs 14,590 crore claimed amount. The pay-out was 28% of the amount claimed.
In 2020-21, the authority had settled same (60) number of disputes, but the settlement was a little higher at Rs 5,313 crore though the claim amount was less than 2021-22 at Rs 14,207 crore.
For faster settlement of claims through conciliation and reduce liabilities, NHAI had in 2017-18 started the process of conciliation by constituting three Conciliation Committees of Independent Experts (CCIE) of three members each.
These committees are headed by retired officials from the judiciary, senior experts from public administration, finance and from private sector.
“Till date, out of 251 cases that have been referred to CCIE, out of which 155 cases of claims by contractors and concessionaires worth 38,747 crore have been successfully settled for an amount of13,067 crore,” NHAI said in a statement.
In addition to the CCIE, NHAI has setup Dispute Resolution Board (DRB) which helps in getting first-hand information of on site activities and resolving the dispute before it escalates to arbitration.
Under the DRB mechanism, the Board members visit the project site as and when required or at least six times in a year. So far, 97 DRBs have been constituted to help solve disputes and mitigate issues pertaining to different projects.
“While CCIE have led to a significant increase in the number of settlement cases, DRBs help in resolving the disputes at an early stage or in giving factual position of site which makes job of conciliation or arbitration or court easy,” NHAI said.
These measures have proved to be a win-win situation for both NHAI and its concessionaires, contractors or consultants.