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Our Bureau

New Delhi, May 3 National Highways Builders Federation (NHBF), the highway developers lobby body, has written to the Road Ministry against the Government’s proposed move to get some road contractors enter into more stringent agreements for existing projects.

To avoid any further delays and to ensure timely completion of highway projects, the Road Ministry has been mulling a move wherein the contractors will be asked to execute a supplementary agreement for ongoing projects (under engineering procurement contracts).

The new agreement broadly asks the contractors to specify the timeframe for project completion, failing which NHAI would have the right to terminate their contracts and get them executed at the contractor’s risk and cost.

Contesting the proposed move, the NHBF has said the existing contract between NHAI and the company implementing a project does not provide for “executing any additional agreements”.

In a thinly-veiled threat, NHBF has said that such a move would dissuade contractors from further bidding for NHAI contracts. In the context of poor response from contractors to the national highway project bids, since October 2008, the Government has been persuading highway contractors to bid for the projects.

“In case a contractor is not performing as per the laid down conditions in the contract, there are enough provisions in the existing contract itself to take action against the contractor, including termination of the contract. Therefore, it is felt that the execution of a supplementary agreement not only violates existing conditions of the contract, but would also dissuade contractors from quoting for future works,” NHBF has said in a letter written to the Road Ministry.

More Stories on : Roadways | Industry Associations

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