NHAI may nix premium rollover by 5 firms recently.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is likely to reject requests from four or five firms, including Sadbhav Engin-eering, Reliance Infra- structure and Oriental Structural Engineers, for rescheduling the premia due to the government for constructing highways.

'We will take nine applications for consideration in our board meeting tomorrow out of a total of 15 received for rescheduling of premium,' a senior official told Business Standard, on condition of anonymity. However, four to five applications do not qualify for the scheme this year and are likely to be rejected. 'There has to be a strong case for rescheduling premia. We did not find these developers under stress for the projects they have applied for rescheduling. They don't need any relief this year; they might need it in the coming years, but not now,' the official added.

A total of 39 projects are eligible for rescheduling premia. The combined premium these developers owe the government is Rs. 25,000 crore, through the next 20 years.

The NHAI received premium rescheduling requests from Indore Dewas Tollways, a consortium of DLF Infra and Gayatri Projects, IRB Infra for two projects, Reliance Infra for three, and Essel, Larsen & Toubro and Srei Infrastructure for one each. Besides, Sadbhav Engineering and Oriental Structural Engineers, Sew-Navayuga Engineering, Transstroy India, BSCPL Infrastructure also applied under the scheme.


BS