SC allows private firm to restore construction of highway project

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today allowed a private highway project concessionaire to restore construction of the 291 km Panipat-Jalandhar highway project and directed NHAI to permit it to shift the toll plaza from KM 146 to any point between KM 110 and KM 117.

A bench of justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Pinaki Chandra Ghose set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that had asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to take over the highway project from Soma Isolux NH One Tollway Pvt Ltd as it failed to complete the project by 2012.

"We deem it just and appropriate to set aside the impugned directions of the High Court, and permit the appellant (Soma) to restore the construction of the balance stretch/area of the highway project by further directing the NHAI to permit the appellant to shift the Toll Plaza from KM 146 to any point between KMs 110 and KMs 117 with concurrence of the NHAI.

"The exact point of construction of Toll Plaza between KMs 110 to KMs 117 shall thus be decided by the NHAI holding mutual consultation with the appellant/concessionaire in the light of the approval already granted by the independent engineer in terms of the Agreement which also had been approved by the High Court earlier," the bench said.

It directed that the shifting although may not be permitted at KMs 110, it may be allowed to be shifted at any point between KMs 110 and KMs 117 in consultation and with concurrence of the NHAI.

"In fact, we could have directed the appellant to shift the Toll Plaza even beyond 117, KMs but we have been informed that beyond KM 117 the area is thickly populated and would not be practically possible to set up the Toll Plaza beyond KMs 117," the court said.

In order to facilitate and expedite completion of the Highway Project, the bench directed NHAI to permit shifting of Toll Plaza from KM 146 to anywhere between KMs 110 and KMs 117 expeditiously but not later than a period of two months from today.