CCI to expedite clearance on NHAI case: BK Chaturvedi

Industry has been complaining about policy paralysis, but this is the first time that someone is taking the government to court for policy paralysis. More curious part is that one arm of government is taking another arm of government to court for inaction. It's the case of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) dragging environment ministry to court.

Also read: GMR Infra slips as NHAI keen to disallow co from bidding

Two contractors walked away from NHAI Public Private Partnership (PPP) contracts because the highway authority failed to arrange for environmental clearances within the specified time. Is it a sea change in decision making that we can expect triggered from this or is it just some clashing egos.

To know, if this can be used as an opportunity to set deadlines for all government bodies, there was a panel discussion. The panelist included BK Chaturvedi, Former Cabinet Secretary and now a planning commission member. Ashok Jha, Former Finance Secretary was also present.

Below is the edited transcript of their interview to CNBC-TV18

Q: How do we understand this one arm of government taking another arm of government to court? Is this some kind of a personality or intra-party, intra-government clash?

Chaturvedi: No, I don't think it is a personality clash. The basic problem is that there have court decisions in the case of Lafarge by the honorable Supreme Court. It was felt by the NHAI that their discussions with the ministry of environment led them to believe that their way of interpreting was not exactly what the honorable court had meant.

Therefore, as far as their linear roads programmes, where construction of roads takes place, they should be able to have a different perspective. They have gone to the court. It is more of a clarification nature, so that they are able to move forward at faster pace. My perspective is that environmental questions are complicated and quite often these problems arise.

Q: If it is only a minor clarification then perhaps it could have been done in a less combative fashion, but there could be a lot of collateral damage.

Chatterjee: Collateral damage is substantive. One is at the level where it affects the confidence in PPP projects. Second is where I believe there are almost 15 or 20 promoters with delayed projects. They may be thinking along similar directions. So, the collateral damage is huge at both the levels.

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