Gurgaon e-way: NHAI, operator still to sort out differences
A month after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the operator of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway assured the Delhi High Court that they had reached a settlement on the lease termination row, nothing has been worked out.
A month after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the operator of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway assured the Delhi High Court that they had reached a settlement on the lease termination row, nothing has been worked out.
This became clear during a court hearing on the controversial row on Monday.
On July 5, both parties told Justice S Muralidhar that they had “settled in principle” all their differences that had led to the nodal highway agency issuing lease termination notice to the operator in February this year.
But on Monday, NHAI’s lawyer told the court: “We need some more time to get internal approvals to finalise the settlement agreement, and our next board meeting is slated for August 13. The court has adjourned the matter till August 30.
“We are happy to say that we have arrived at a settlement in principle. We want to close the matter at the earliest,” Neeraj Kishan Kaul, the senior lawyer appearing for operator Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity (DCSCL) Limited, told the court on July 5.
Kaul said a meeting took place between the NHAI and the concessionaire and the issues between the two parties had been settled. Both sides sought further time to “formalise” the settlement and enable them to take internal approvals.
The court was hearing DGSCL’s plea for a direction to restrain NHAI from taking any coercive action against it, including termination of the contract to operate the expressway.