On Saturday, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, held a High-Level meeting with the National Highway Builders Federation to resolve their issues.
In a statement, the ministry stated, “It was agreed that the implementation of the Vivad Se Vishwas II Scheme be taken in a campaign mode with a target to settle all eligible claims. NHBF was requested to ensure that all contractors file their claims by 25 October 2023”.
“The Vivad se Vishwas Il (Contractual Disputes) Scheme of the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Government of India contains detailed procedures/modalities to arrive at the settlement amount that shall be offered to the Contractors and where the claim amount is Rs.500 crore or less, procuring entities will have to accept the claim if the claim is in compliance with the guidelines”, the statement reads.
It went on to say, “In case the claim is more than Rs.500 crore, then the decision not to accept the request for settlement from the contractor should be made after recording the reasons with the approval of the competent authority. The claims are to be submitted by 31 October 2023 through the GeM portal”.
“The extant guideline is applicable to disputes of all such cases where the award has been passed by the court is for monetary value only and the award of the Arbitration is issued up to 31 January 2023 or the Court Award is passed up to 30 April 2023”, the statement continued.
Anurag Jain, Secretary for the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, stated that the Vivad se Vishwas Il Scheme has been formulated to clear the backlog of old litigation cases. He added that the scheme will help in freeing up locked working capital and stimulate fresh investments.
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