- (1.) Mr. Anand Kumar Singh, Member (Project), NHAI, New Delhi, Mr. Ramesh Prasad Singh, Chief General Manager cum Regional Officer, NHAI, Jharkhand and Mr. Devendra Kumar Gupta, Project Director, Project PIU, NHAI, Ranchi are present on behalf of the Respondent NHAI. Mr. Ratish Nandan Singh, Executive Engineer, Road Division, Road Construction Department, Ranchi (Gramin) is present on behalf of the Respondent State. Mr. K. Srinivasa Rao, Managing Director of the Respondent No. 6 Agency is present. Mr. B. Ramachandra, Authorized Signatory cum Project Manager, REL is also present on behalf of the Respondent No. 6 Agency.
(2.) Member (Project), NHAI Mr. Anand Kumar Singh has addressed the Court on various aspects in relation to the execution of the project, as per the proposed work programme furnished by the agency on the previous date by which, they have shown their intention to complete the work on available work front of 128.8 kms by July 2018. The Member (Project), NHAI has also informed us of deliberation held under his chairmanship with the Concessionaire, independent Engineers and senior lender (Canara Bank) on 14.08.2017 to resolve the issues related to availability of fund, deployment of plant, machinery and work force (Annexure-A/1 to the affidavit filed on their behalf). He has also apprised us of the discussion made on the issues relating to land acquisition, possession of land, forest clearance, status of clearances / renewal of leases of stone quarry of the Concessionaire with the State Government officials. He has also explained that though, balance fund remaining to be disbursed out of the estimated / committed value available, as per the finance close, is much more, but the Concessionaire and the lenders have indicated their commitment to infuse equity and disbursement of debt up to April 2018 of the sum of Rs. 232.20 crores. He has submitted that even as per the infusion of equity and disbursement committed by them, funds would be sufficient for construction up to January 2018, as per the given programme. Further availability of funds requirement is to be ensured by senior lenders and Concessionaire both taking into account the progress of the work during this period. The senior lenders have been also asked to explain as to why disbursement of fund earlier was much more than the physical progress shown. In summary, it has been conveyed to us that as per the proposed work programme, submitted by the Concessionaire, there are no hindrance in execution of the work, as per monthly milestones, at least till January 2018. Concessionaire has been asked to redeploy the plant, machinery and other human resources on all the seven sections of these available work front, so that monthly milestones can be adhered to and monitored by the officials of the NHAI, independent Engineers.
(3.) Mr. Anoop Kumar Mehta, representing the Concessionaire, has expressed complete agreement with the observations made by the Member (Project), NHAI. He submits that there is no hindrance in executing the work, as per the proposed work progrramme. The agency is committed to achieve monthly milestones, as per the proposed work programme. It is also committed to complete all formalities in relation to the remaining three out of seven leases for renewal and being operational. As of now, as per their own commitment, out of four operational leases, 1.2 lakh MT of aggregates is being produced per month which would be sufficient to ensure that there is no shortage of aggregates, as per the work programme, up to December 2017. ;