The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued an “intention to termination notice” to Roadways Solutions India Infra Ltd (RSIL) for failing to achieve construction milestones on a 35-km stretch of the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway in Gujarat, according to a report by The Times of India. The notice is the final step before cancellation of the contract.
Construction on the affected stretch has progressed at an extremely slow pace, with only 4.9% of physical work completed and just 4.6% of the planned expenditure incurred so far. Two other RSIL-executed packages in Gujarat, measuring 27 km and 25 km respectively, are also behind schedule, with construction progress standing at 23% and 36%.
The delays could push the revised completion timeline of the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway beyond March 2028, sources cited in the report said.
RSIL, a Pune-based engineering and construction company focused on highway projects, was awarded the Gujarat expressway packages in 2021. Notably, NHAI had terminated RSIL’s contracts for two stretches in March 2023 due to poor performance, but re-awarded them in November 2023 after the company emerged as the lowest bidder again.
In its communication to RSIL, NHAI cited “absolute and continued non-performance” as the reason for issuing the termination notice. The authority noted that despite multiple extensions, support measures and three settlement agreements, the contractor had achieved financial progress of only 4.59% even after 16 months from the appointed date of August 31, 2024.
Under the original project timeline of 18 months, RSIL was expected to complete around 70% of the work by now. NHAI said the negligible progress makes it “wholly impossible” to complete the Jujuwa–Gandeva section of the expressway by the scheduled deadline of November 15, 2026.
The authority added that the settlement agreements clearly stipulated that failure to meet agreed milestones would result in termination without any cure period. Accordingly, NHAI has treated the current communication as a 15-day termination notice, after which the contract may be formally cancelled.
NHAI also said the incomplete work on the three RSIL packages has caused significant public inconvenience. For the remaining two delayed sections, the authority is considering issuing separate cure period notices.
