Plans afoot to set up arbitral tribunal to fix issues: Gadkari

The government is working on setting up an arbitral tribunal to clear the huge backlog of cases as it is committed to fast-tracking the sector's growth, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari today said.
"The previous governments have left a legacy of disputes impeding the highway sector's growth. We have sent a proposal for setting up an arbitral tribunal to the finance ministry... as we need approval of the law and finance ministries," Gadkari said on the sidelines of a CII event on 'Building National Competitiveness'.
"Not a single highway dispute has come to the fore in about two years of the present Narendra Modi government."

Marking out resolution of disputes as his ministry's top priority, Gadkari said, "We have sent the proposal of setting up a four-member panel... Many cases are pending in the Supreme Court and high courts, impeding the sector's growth, and once the proposal is cleared, we will resolve all cases."
Of late, the Modi government has taken steps to help clear Rs 3.8 lakh crore stalled highways projects.
"There are no disputes of the present government. We solved a large number of problems including a big Rs 7,000 crore project, but some projects are beyond our limitations. Once the panel is approved by the finance minister, we will ask NHAI, government officials and developers to solve disputes with mutual consent," Gadkari said.

He is hopeful of a solution in the upcoming Parliament session.

The minister has recently said, "There were 283 stalled projects worth Rs 3.8 lakh crore at the time when I took over the reins of the ministry... For two and a half years, the previous environment and forest minister did not sign a single file... A majority of the projects were stuck on account of forest clearances and regulatory hurdles."
Talking about a project-specific approach to address the issue of stalled projects at the CII event, he said as a result, around 85 per cent of the stalled projects have been put on track.

The emphasis now has been on awarding the projects under the innovative hybrid annuity model and in toll-operate-transfer mode, opening the door to the private sector to invest in road construction.