National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has sought advice from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on how to modify the concession agreement for the stalled project to widen the Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad highway to six lanes.
NHAI Chairman RP Singh wrote a letter to CAG Vinod Rai asking the latter to deliberate on modification of the concession agreement under which the project was originally awarded to GMR.
The move by NHAI comes after the CAG alleged that the exchequer suffered a presumptive loss of Rs 32,500 crore owing to the GMR GroupÂ’s unilateral termination of the concession agreement for the 555-km project.
GMR terminated the agreement citing delays in clearance and NHAIÂ’s alleged non-compliance with certain provisions of the agreement.
The infrastructure major later relented and told the authority that if the terms of agreement are modified to its satisfaction, it could come back to the project.
In the letter, Singh said the issue has wider implications for the road sector and needs careful resolution in order to protect the governmentÂ’s interest.
NHAI awarded the stretch to GMR on September 22, 2011, but work on the project could not start as the authority could not get the relevant environmental and forestry clearances.
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