Delhi-Mumbai Expressway delay: Pune's RSIL could soon lose contract over "absolute non-performance"

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued an “intention to termination notice” to Roadways Solutions India Infra Ltd (RSIL) for failing to meet construction targets on a key stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Gujarat, a move that put fresh strain on India’s most ambitious road infrastructure project.

The notice, issued on Wednesday, relates to a 35-km section where physical and financial progress stands at just 4.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent of the target, The Times of India reported on December 25.

NHAI officials say the delays are serious enough to push the revised completion deadline of the project beyond March 2028, ToI's report (by Dipak K Dash) said.


RSIL, a Pune-based engineering and construction company focused on roads and highways, had secured multiple packages of the expressway project in Gujarat in 2021. In total, the company is responsible for three stretches spanning 87 km in the state.

Progress across these packages has been uneven at best. While the 35-km stretch has seen negligible movement, two other sections of 27 km and 25 km are only 23 per cent and 36 per cent complete. The slow pace has already emerged as a major bottleneck for the expressway, which carries an estimated cost of over Rs 1 lakh crore.

In its formal communication to RSIL, NHAI cited “absolute and continued non-performance” as the reason for initiating the final step before termination. The authority noted that despite repeated indulgences and the signing of three settlement agreements, the contractor had managed financial progress of only 4.59 per cent even after 16 months from the appointed date of August 31, 2024.

Under the original contract, the construction timeline was set at 18 months from that date. By this stage, NHAI said, the contractor should have achieved around 70 per cent financial progress. The gap between expectation and reality, the authority argued, makes completion of the Jujuwa-Gandeva section by November 15, 2026, “wholly impossible”.

The letter also highlights that NHAI had extended assistance and provided multiple opportunities to RSIL to recover lost ground. According to the authority, there was no visible improvement even after these interventions.

An NHAI official said the settlement agreements clearly stated that failure to meet agreed milestones would lead to termination without the issuance of a cure period notice. “In the settlement agreements, it was specified that if it fails to achieve agreed milestones, NHAI will terminate the contract without any cure period notice. So, we have served the notice,” the official said.

A cure period notice typically gives a contractor 60 days to rectify breaches. In this case, NHAI has instead treated the communication as a 15-day notice, as permitted under the contract. Once this period expires, the authority will be entitled to formally terminate the agreement.

The authority has also pointed to the wider impact of the delays, saying the incomplete packages under RSIL are causing significant public inconvenience on multiple fronts.

The latest move follows an unusual sequence of events. NHAI had terminated RSIL’s contracts for two stretches in March 2023, only to re-award them to the same company in November 2023 after it emerged as the lowest bidder again. The renewed delays have now revived concerns over contractor selection and project oversight.

In the case of the remaining two sections under RSIL, NHAI is likely to issue cure period notices, signalling that further action could follow if progress does not improve.