NHBF raises alarm over non-payment of legitimate price by NHAI

Mumbai, Nov 9 (UNI) National Highways Builders Federation (NHBF), the single largest body representing highway builders in the country, today said that contractors are facing severe constraints in proceeding with major highway contracts of national importance in light of unilateral stoppage of payment of 14 higway contracts on the Golden Quadrilateral implemented by the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI).

In a statement here, NHBF President B Seenaiah said ''The non-receipt of escalation payments has greately affected the cash flow of contractors thereby hampering their ability to proceed with the work on the stretches. Land acquisition, removal of utilities and felling of trees are amongst the other major hindrances faced by the industry today, which prevents project completion within the stipulated time period.'' ''As a result, resources including labour and machinery already deployed by the companies for the projects remain idle. The land made available by project-awarding bodies is seldom in continuous stretches. This causes further delay and additional investment, leading to cost overruns and operational inefficiency for the infrastructure companies,'' the statement said.

Large Indian construction companies including L&T, IVRCL, Gammon India, Nagarjuna Contruction Co, Unitech, ITD Cementation, BSCPL and Navayuga Engineering had been affected due to non-payment of legitimate price escalation bills amounting to over Rs 400 crore.

The companies apprehend that this would result in a significant slowing down of work and may lead to work stoppages, impacting the overall highway development programme of the nation, the release added.

UNI AR SSS AG2016