'Accidents rise on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway'

New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Thursday told the Delhi High Court that there has been marked increased in the number of accidents on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway since the time it was opened.

The highway authority blamed the Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd's (DGSCL), which operates the expressway between the capital and the Haryana city, for the increased number of accidents. It also alleged that DGSCL is only interested in earning revenue from the highway and failed to curb the accidents.

The NHAI has claimed that in the month of Jan 2012, a total of 232 accidents have taken place on the highway.

The highway authority further claimed that from the year 2008, when the highway started, till date - around 4,000 accidents have taken place and the number has been increasing with the passing year.

"The DGSCL was found to be failing in promoting the use of tags, controlling of the queues, uncooperative in the rescue and relief in the case of accidents and was only interested in earning revenue from the highway," the NHAI said in its reply.

The highway authority further alleged: "The petitioner (DGSCL) has indulge in the serious and grave irregularities/defaults in performance of its obligations under the concession agreements, which caused great discomfort and inconvenience to the general public, besides causing accidents and lack of traffic/incident management systems leading to massive agitations at the project site."

A bench of Justice S. Muralidhar extending the stay on the NHAI decision to terminate the DGSCL contract to operate the expressway, posted the matter for May 21.

The relation between the two parties turned sour after the NHAI accused DGSCL of fraud in the form of refinancing the project without getting its approval.

The highways authority, while ordering termination of its deal with the private firm, had accused it of failure to improve services at the 32-lane toll plaza.

The DGSCL had approached the Delhi High Court after the NHAI had issued a preliminary termination notice to it on Dec 7 last year, and sought court's direction to restrain the highways authority from taking any coercive action against it.