Haryana Government today asked the Delhi High Court to hear it on the difficulties being faced by locals due to the manner in which the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway is being run, while the Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd sought more time to consider its exit plan.
"The government needs to be heard. It can place before the court the practical difficulties being faced by locals," the counsel for Haryana Government told the bench of Justice Manmohan Singh.
Haryana Government had in July, 2013 submitted an application seeking removal of two toll plazas at the Expressway or else termination of concession agreement on the ground of concessionaire's event of default with a one-time termination payment of Rs 118 crore.
It had also said that problems at the Expressway was giving a "bad name to the state."
The bench said it would hear the state government on Friday and granted time to DGSCL till then while seeking to know if by then the issue would be resolved. To this the DGSCL said the issue will surely be resolved.
During the hearing, National Highways Authority of India and the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), the lead financier for the project, submitted a draft consent order before the court.
The counsel for NHAI said the consent order is based on the proposal submitted by it before the court on January 27 which said the senior lenders were agreeable to substituting DGSCL, the concessionaire and that the Expressway will have a single toll plaza at 42 km.
The proposal also said the claim of Rs 988 crore of DGSCL shall be withdrawn and all conditions in the Memorandum of Undertaking shall be implemented by the financial institutions or the substitute concessionaire who may be selected by the lenders.
The lenders and the DGSCL had last month told the High Court that they are near a "consent order" which would pave the way for the removal of the toll plaza at Sirhaul and exit of DGSCL.
The Haryana government had in its application last year said the two toll plazas have been causing inconvenience to general public using NH-8 and there have been traffic jams which gives rise to deep-rooted public resentment, thereby giving a bad name to the state government as well as the NHAI and the central government.
