CHENNAI: The dispute between the estranged multi-national companies - Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), Gammon India Limited and its sub-venture company Mosmetrostroy - is all set to come to an end as they all have agreed to go in for an amicable settlement through arbitration.
An assurance was given by the first two companies, the contesting parties, to the First Bench of the Madras High Court on April 27.
And based on their assurance to go in for arbitration, Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh constituted a team of technical and legal experts to arrive at a settlement.
Justice AP Shah, retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and former Chairman of the Law Commission, will be the chairman of the expert committee. The other two technical experts were co-opted as per the choice of the CMRL and Gammon India.
The CMRL’s decision in July 2015 to terminate the orders placed with the Gammon India, due to the delay in the completion of the tunneling work after Gammon’s joint venture partner Mosmetrostroy, a Russian Company, abandoned the project, led to a legal battle.
Gammon had in 2011 bagged the Rs 1,947-crore project with Mosmetrostroy to design and construct 7 underground stations.
When the matter came up before the Bench on Wednesday last, the parties agreed for arbitration, as suggested by the Bench.
“With the positive approach of the senior counsel (for both the parties), the controversy has been resolved and it is agreed that all parties would go in for arbitration to resolve their disputes,” the Bench said.
While Prof Kirti Dave, chartered engineer, techno-legal consultant in Mumbai, is nominated by Gammon India, CMRL nominated Hyderabad based Dr PV Amarnadha Prasad, techno-legal expert, arbitration consultant and an advocate.
The parties also readily agreed to the suggestions of the Bench to appoint Justice Shah as the presiding arbitrator, since a lot of legal issues are involved in these matters, apart from the technical ones.
The Bench then directed the parties to keep alive the six bank guarantees given by Gammon to the value of Rs 115 crore during the period of arbitration.