NHAI : Govts liability to complete project
The contractor of the Port-Maduravoyal elevated corridor project has demanded payment of a further Rs. 103 crore, as compensation for delays in delivering land, idling interest and charges, from the state government.
An additional affidavit was recently submitted by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) with the Madras High Court which declared that all financial expenditure on account of stoppage of the project should be borne by the respective state government. Including this amount, claims of Rs. 872.80 crore have been raised as compensation by the contractor.
After a ‘stop work’ notice was issued by the department of Water Resources in March of 2012, the Rs. 1,815-crore project was put on hold. The notice was issued based on the deviation of the alignment of the corridor along the banks of river Cooum, from the original alignment plan.
The affidavit submitted by NHAI to the Madras High Court mentions that since the ‘stop work’ notice was issued by the government, the losses incurred by the concessionaire, who has to construct, operate, administer and transfer the elevated corridor project after a twenty year period is the responsibility of the government.
The project’s implementing agency is the NHAI. The deadline for the nineteen kilometer long stretch is scheduled to end on the 13th of September, 2013.
As per officials of NHAI, in case there aren’t any improvements within the status of the project by then, the agency would have to terminate the contract due to lack of any other alternative.
The NHAI had gone to court seeking a direction to quash the order and direct the State government to take all steps to proceed with the project within a stipulated time frame.
Fifty per cent of the cost incurred for the acquisition of land, rehabilitation and resettlement of 6,100 families living along the river Cooum as well as the removal of 458 commercial structures within Chintadripet, had to be shared by the State government.
