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Journalism of Courage
The law ministry,which had opposed the rescheduling of premium payments by highway developers,has now done a U-turn and put the onus on the finance ministry. It has said that it is all right with the rescheduling if the finance ministry is fine with the proposal.
The move will benefit a slew of highway projects,the immediate beneficiaries being GMR,GVK and Ashoka Buildcon,that had terminated their projects Kishangarh,Ahmedabad,Shivpuri-Dewas and Cuttack- Angul,respectively citing clearance delays.
The law ministry had earlier opined that since NHAI and a developer were in agreement,the same could not be renegotiated.
This followed the NHAI raising fresh concerns,saying if the relaxation is not given to developers,it would lead to a loss of Rs 98,115 crore in premium revenue over the next 30 years to the governments as projects would get abandoned and re-bidding could potentially lead to much lower premium given the economic slowdown.
Confirming the law ministrys changed stance,a senior road ministry official said that the ministry would now take up the matter with the finance ministry.
The matter was earlier considered by a committee of secretaries CoS given its financial implications. The CoS took the view that the law ministrys opinion must be sought first. A CoS intervention,it was said,would be required only if the law ministry did not give its assent.
After exiting from Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad project,GMR had approached the government for rescheduling of premium payments and said if this was done,the company could reconsider the decision.
After this,the NHAI board cleared the GMR proposal and requested the Centre to allow relaxation for all 25 projects which were bid on premium.
