News Detail

<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Lenders for the Gurgaon expressway project have thrown a fresh hurdle in the removal of the Delhi border toll plaza. They now want the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to make up the shortfall in revenue on scrapping the 32-lane plaza, as this would leave only the Kherki Dhaula plaza for toll collection.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">NHAI is learnt to have told the bankers that it cannot entertain any new proposal. The main banker, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), had submitted it a proposal in May last year for dispensing with the first toll plaza and recovering the entire loan about INR 1,600 crore from the second plaza at Kherki Dhaula.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Sources said that NHAI has told bank representatives it would go ahead with the termination of contract if they don&#39;t stick to the earlier proposal. They added that the banks can rework their proposal in line with the original one if they want an out-of-court settlement.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">IDFC chairman Rajiv Lall could not be contacted for his comments. The other big lenders are Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce. There are other five public sector banks in this consortium that has lent INR 1,600 crore for the project without the approval of NHAI. If the contract does get terminated, these banks stand to lose about INR 1,400 crore worth of investment.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The official&rsquo;s privy to the latest development said that NHAI will wait till January 27 for the final proposal as the Delhi high court has fixed January 28 for the next hearing.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Last week, the operator, Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL), and IDFC had submitted a letter to NHAI saying that the private company was ready to quit the project.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">However, when the termination case came up for hearing in the Delhi HC last Monday, the main lender sought two weeks to consult all banks and fine-tune the proposal. NHAI had said the proposal must include doing away the first toll plaza, a bottleneck faced by over two lakh commuters.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Sources said that the other banks were worried as they feared the toll from Kherki Dhaula plaza wouldn&#39;t be enough to repay the debt and that they could face a major audit objection to such a decision.&nbsp;</span></span></span><span style="color:rgb(105, 105, 105); font-family:arial; font-size:11px; line-height:1.6em">They want a compensation clause-either on NHAI paying up or extension of the contract period for collecting toll-to be included in the proposal.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>