The National Highways Authority of India was on Wednesday authorised to decide on rationalized compensation to concessionaires for delays not attributable to concessionaires for languishing highway projects on build-operate-transfer (BOT) mode.
A government statement here said the union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) took the decision in this regard subject to a number of conditions.
"The tenure of the operations period as envisaged originally in the concession agreement may remain unchanged. This will result in a corresponding increase in concession period," it said.
The decision regarding eligibility of projects for the extension of concession period, and the extent of time extension required may be taken by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on a case to case basis based on the recommendation of the concerned Independent Engineer (IE).
The concerned IE, both individual and the firm, shall be accountable for the assessment of the extension recommended in the concession period and the authority shall follow the guidelines while determining the period of delay not attributable to the concessionaire.
Furthermore, the projects using the above special dispensation shall have to achieve physical completion in the next three years.
Also, the committee has authorized the highways authority to pay compensatory annuities to the concessionaire corresponding to the actual period of delay "not attributable to the concessionaire upon successful completion of the project".
However, under this directive, while the construction period will get enhanced, the tenure of the concession will remain unchanged and the total number of annuities payable, including the compensatory annuities, will be capped by the number of annuities envisaged in the Concession Agreement.
Further, the compensatory annuity payable by NHAI to the concessionaire for the delayed period would be the "product of Average Daily Annuity and the actual period of such delay in number of days as recommended by the Independent Engineer (IE) of the concerned project, and approved by the Authority as per guidelines".
