The Ministry of Road Transport and Motorway has moved to tighten control of the highway disputes and prevent state agencies from submitting arbitration problems or appeal against a lawsuit without prior permission.
Order 22 July comes as arbitrary demands against the Indian National Office for Highway £1 trillion – distracting 40 % of total Nhai and £2.5 trillion, which plans to spend on capital projects in FY25 – Underscoring The Financial Thread from unresolved conflicts.
The aim of the centralization of dispute proceedings is to limit expensive legal failures that are said that the state department of public works is often monitored by cases independently.
According to the Morth command, he has identified several cases where agencies such as the State Department of Public Work (PWD) have autonomously initiated legal proceedings without consulting the center. It was an appeal against arbitration concerning Nhai projects.
The order shall order that any decision on contractual disputes or lawsuits that could have financial consequences must first clean Morth.
Why does it matter
Nhai, which builds more than 60% of Indian motorways, often entrusts projects by the state department of PWD and roads. With so many ongoing projects, coordination is difficult when state agencies are persecuted by arbitration or judicial cases themselves without consulting the center.
The problem is acute as Most of the Time Quality Handling Disputes by the Agencies Is Not Good and Results in Adverse Awards That Has Financial Implications on Nhai. The Central Highway Executing Agency Has Better Dispute IT or nhai Should Be Consulted Before Any Legal Recourse is Taken, “and Morth Official Said on Condition of anonymity.
A framework to deal with disputes
Morth has ordered all agencies to record updates on ongoing cases to its centralized disputes over the data lake and route through their three -stage solution mechanism. Within this system, the cases must first undergo mediation and conciliation measures before they escalate to the Morth Board of Dispute (DRB) in arbitration.
Mediation and conciliation measures are non -adversary, while the arbitration proceedings end with one party victory and the other losing.
E -mail questions to Morth sent on August 26th remained unanswered.
Mint earlier June 25 announced that the disputes were shaking Nhai and led to more slow prices on the highway from 6,300 km awarded in FY22 to approximately 4,000 km awarded in FY25.
Part of a wider problem
Morth’s fear of assembly disputes related to the highway, along with his pressure on re-at-law, emphasizes a broader call-long-term battle of the government in courts and arbitration, which continues to release the public treasury.
With the Ministry of Law and Justice, which in April resolved the growing problem of prolonged arbitration problems and court bits concerning the ministries of the government and public sector companies, in April proposed a number of measures to monitor and address these cases.
The framework called on a specialized legal cell in each ministry to monitor the disputes they face and provide accelerated legal counseling. Mint informed about this development 11 April.
On this basis, the Ministry organized a consultation meeting with the Ministry of Public Enterprises on 26 August to strengthen the dispute resolution mechanism for state -owned companies, he said in a publicly available statement of LinkedIn.
Experts said the step should monitor the manipulation of these cases centralized.
“Often the selection of legal representatives, arbitrators and even measures, such as non -mediation, etc., leads to uncontrollable results for Nhai,” said Gahar Mirza, a partner in Saraf and partners.
Nhai historically saw huge arbitration demands against him, Mirza said. He added that earlier reforms, such as the Vivaad system, Vishwas-II for contractual disputes-have intended to deal with the arbitration requirements for discounted rates-have a small impact.
Implementing agencies that take steps themselves can speed up dispute resolution, but with a catch. “If state PWDs or other agencies independently deal with legal matters related to Nhai projects, this would certainly lead to faster legal questions compared to the search for previous consent from Morth,” said Faranaaz Karbhari, advisor to HSA Advocates.
“However, this would also have some adverse consequences. For example, this could lead to inconsistent legal strategies, because different bodies may take contradictory positions on similar issues. It could also lead to increased financial burdens and responsibilities if the actions were not properly prevented by these state PWDs or agencies.
(Tagstotranslate) Morth
