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The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and contractors are engaged in disputes on amounts of over Rs 11,000 crore.
“Amount involved in disputes pending in honourable courts is Rs 865 crore and amount involved in disputes pending in Arbitrary Tribunal is Rs 10,219.13 crore,” Mr Jitin Prasada, Minister of State, Road Transport and Highways, stated in Lok Sabha today.
“There are 536 disputes pending in honourable courts and 1,099 disputes pending in arbitration tribunals relating to national highways development projects being implemented by the NHAI,” he added.
The Government had appointed a committee, headed by Mr BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, which looked into the dispute resolution mechanism. The recommendations were legally vetted by the Solicitor General of India.
The major recommendations include offering one time settlement of pending disputes adopting a bucket-based approach. The committee recommended dropping all cases where amount claimed is less than Rs 10 crore or five per cent of contract price (whichever is lower) after a review by an independent expert group.
“NHAI may carefully review the remaining cases. The award of Arbitrary Tribunal may be accepted in cases where amount involved is between Rs 10 crore and Rs 100 crore,” it said.
The committee also recommended that accountability and credibility of dispute resolution boards could be ensured by test checks by a technical team. Also, review of detailed project reports could be made more extensive.
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