KMP Expway may miss deadline again

The monthly progress of the upcoming Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway has dropped down during the first three months of this year.

The monthly progress of the upcoming Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway has dropped down during the first three months of this year.

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At the present pace, it is unlikely that the concessionaire will be able to complete the project by November 2011, the latest deadline committed by it.

KMP Expressways Ltd, the concessionaire, has already missed the April 30 deadline for opening traffic on the priority section of Manesar to Palwal.

“In light of the dwindling progress it is certain that the concessionaire is not going to keep up to his commitment again,” said a senior official.

The monthly progress of the 135.65-km-long expressway went down to 1.06%, 0.88 % and 0.91% during January, February and March respectively.

As per the latest bulletin, the concessionaire has achieved a physical progress of 61.32% (R908 crore) till March 31, 2011 against the original commercial operation date (CoD) of July 29, 2011 and revised CoD of December 31, 2010.

“The monthly progress of the project had been continuously much below the targets fixed by the concessionaire and in view of the slow progress of the work, secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, who is the chairman of the monitoring committee has expressed dissatisfaction on the project,” said an official, who attended the April 5 review of the project conducted by the High Powered Committee (Expressways).

Though the chairman of the Centre’s monitoring committee has asked Haryana to take appropriate action as per the concession agreement, it seems the state government is not too keen on invoking the penal clauses of the agreement.

Group chairman of KMP Expressways, HS Kohli, on the other hand, has expressed reservations regarding the proposed penal action as per the minutes of the April 5 meeting.