New Delhi, Jun 18 (IANS): The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is accelerating the process of settlement of claims through reconciliation. For this, it has formed three independent committees consisting of experts, through which the process of reconciliation has begun.

The Ministry of Road Transport has reported that the reconciliation committees will be headed by retired officials of the judiciary, senior experts in public administration, finance and private sector.

The Ministry has stated that as per the Arbitration Act 2015 and amendments made in it, all arbitration disputes will be settled within a period of 12 to 18 months. Through this, the path of reconciliation and settlement of claims will be done speedily in a just and transparent manner.

Under this process, reconciliation and settlement proceedings in each case can be completed within a period of six months from the day of inception through five sittings.

It is worth noting that so far, 108 cases have been sent for settlement of claims worth a total of Rs 13,349 crore and have been successfully settled with an amount of Rs 3,743 crore.

The NHAI is working on a fast track system to resolve all disputes through reconciliation.

Through this, not only will the legal troubles in the long-standing arbitration process be reduced but the amount stuck in arbitration cases can also be put into the revival of the private sector.