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• The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may have to deal with a fresh dispute over the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, this time with lenders, led by Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), who have provided credit facility of Rs 1,597 crore to the developer of the 28 km road project.Within days of NHAI issuing a termination order to Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), lenders have asked NHAI to withdraw the order, citing violations of the tripartite agreement it had signed with the developer and the government. Claiming to be writing at the behest of all lenders, IDFC said under the concession agreement, NHAI is bound to send a notice for any termination to the banks and financial institutions too so that they have two months to cure any default.
• In a letter addressed to NHAI, IDFC has said the lenders have received the termination notice from DGSCL, the concessionaire, instead of the highway authority. It claimed that they should have got the order directly in their capacity as lenders. "This is despite the fact that NHAI has recognized the lenders as de-facto lenders to DGSCL," the letter said.
• NHAI sources, however, said the road construction agency never recognized the new set of banks, which were replaced by the private firm (DGSCL) to refinance the project at Rs 1,597 crore. "The NHAI has never approved their role to finance the project and hence there is no scope of informing them about termination. We are unaware of the deal between the concessionaire and those bankers. We never signed any substitution agreement and escrow agreement with them. Their claims are unfounded," said a senior official, who did not wish to be named.
• On its part IDFC has said the failure on the part of NHAI to send them notice has deprived them of their "valuable rights" as per the provisions of the contract agreement. "The right is all the more relevant as the alleged termination notice is inter alia on account of the alleged failure of the financing documents to comply with the requirements of the concession agreement," the letter said.
• The IDFC has also claimed that despite their submission of the financing document and repeated follow up, NHAI did not execute the substitution and escrow agreements. It said the highways authority has not even replied to their latest letter written on December 23. But NHAI officials said the bankers were changed without seeking approval of the authority and this is one of the main reasons for the termination order. "We had given a conditional clearance for one different set of lenders to raise Rs 1,275 crore. How can we be a party to a case where the private firm has got Rs 1,597 crore from some other bankers?" said an official.

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