Resume work on e-way in 3 months, SC tells Haryana

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, January 30

The Supreme Court today directed the Haryana Government to award within two months fresh contracts for the construction of the 136-km Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway and ensure resumption of work within three months.

A special Bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu passed the order after Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar said the new government in Haryana was not willing to pay Rs1,300 crore to the existing concessionaire, KMP Expressways Ltd, as agreed to by the previous regime.

The contractor had claimed that 68 per cent of the work was over on the project but in reality not even a single kilometre of the expressway could be treated as fully complete, the Solicitor-General said.

The state government had decided to issue fresh tenders within two weeks for the project and award four contracts by dividing the 136-km road in four stretches, instead of giving the entire project to a single concessionaire as was done earlier, Ranjit Kumar said.

Expressing its displeasure over the progress of work on the project at a snail’s pace, the apex court said that at this rate it might take another two decades for its completion which was not acceptable. Work was to have been completed in five years by August, 2012, the Bench noted. Justices Arun Mishra and Adarsh Kumar Goel were the other members of the Bench.

The Solicitor-General assured the court that the state would squeeze time and set strict deadlines for the new concessionaires.

KMP e-way, also known as Delhi Western Peripheral E-way, is part of the efforts to decongest traffic in the Capital and minimise the problem of alarming pollution levels arising from vehicular emissions. After hearing a PIL filed in 1985, the SC had also directed construction of a similar expressway on the eastern side of Delhi to enable vehicles plying between Haryana, Punjab, UP and other states to bypass the Capital.

Appearing for KMP Expressways Ltd, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the cancellation of the contract awarded to his client and the new state government’s refusal to pay Rs1,300 crore for the completed work were under arbitration and as such the SC order for awarding fresh contracts would render the arbitration proceedings meaningless.

At this, the Bench clarified that its order would not come in the way of the settlement proceedings.