Too many cooks spoil the broth, they say. This also holds true for road projects with multiple stakeholders.

Take the Panipat-Jalandhar stretch in Punjab. According to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), this stretch is an example of how managing contract terms in public-private partnership (PPP) projects is becoming difficult because of the many stakeholders involved. This is despite the contracthaving been signed by two parties — the road developer and NHAI.

Work on the Panipat-Jalandhar stretch on NH-1 has stopped as the developer — a consortium of Soma Enterprises and Isolux Corsan — awaits the Supreme Court’s judgement on the issue, which has been reserved since two months now.

Public backlash At least, this is NHAI’s stated position, as it faces public backlash for ignoring the development of this road stretch.

Incidentally, a year ago, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had directed NHAI to take over the unfinished part of the highway, construct it within a month, and complete the entire stretch within six months.

“We (had) even made preparations to divide the stretch in parts and had lined up contractors for completing the project on a war footing, keeping in view the hardship faced by the public,” the NHAI Chairman has said in a letter to the Highway Ministry Secretary.

“The stretch from Ludhiana-Rajpura is part of the stretch allotted to Soma-Isolux NH 1 Tollway and shall be taken up after announcement of judgement by Supreme Court of India,” Singh has said.

Toll plaza In effect, the case began with a decision in commuter interest taken by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and resulted in a decision against the road developer, who challenged it in Supreme Court.

But, “when the matter went to Supreme Court, the focus shifted from public interest…..to location of toll plaza on the stretch, which is a pure contractual matter and is currently being heard in Delhi High Court, Singh stated.

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