The Union government has asked the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to review all its languishing projects and identify those projects that can be terminated on contractual grounds, so that they can be bid for all over again. Several of NHAI projects awarded in recent years are either stranded midway or have been complete non-starters.
Even the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (India) wanted the same clarity for those stalled projects that could benefit from deferral of premium payments. The Ministry will re-circulate a Cabinet note on its proposal to allow financially stressed developers to defer payments of premia that they had committed to pay to win the highway projects.
An additional option of cancelling the projects and re-bidding them would now be included in the note. The Ministry said this note, which has been modified based on the finance minister P Chidambaram’s advice on the matter, will be sent to the Cabinet so that a final call can be taken at the highest level and the projects can finally start moving again.
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