More Stories

Informist, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

NEW DELHI – The Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has admitted National Asset Reconstruction Co. Ltd.'s plea to initiate insolvency proceedings against Haridwar Highways Project Ltd. for defaulting on repayment of dues totalling INR 23.87 billion. The tribunal has appointed Alok Kumar Agarwal as the interim resolution professional of Haridwar Highways Project to carry out the functions as per the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

In 2010, Haridwar Highways Project had entered into a concession agreement with the National Highways Authority of India for augmentation of an existing road in Muzaffarnagar–Haridwar section of NH-58 in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, by way of four-laning on a design, build, finance, operate, and transfer basis. The project's cost was initially estimated at INR 11 billion, for which Haridwar Highways Project had approached Axis Bank to part-finance the project. The holding company of Haridwar Highways Project was ERA Infra Engineering Ltd.

Axis Bank sanctioned a term loan of INR 6.90 billion for part-financing the project. To further secure the term loan, ERA Infra had executed a deed pledging 25,500 equity shares held by it in Haridwar Highways Project. As per the loan documents, Axis Bank was entitled to assign or transfer, in whole or in part, its loan to other lenders on identical terms and conditions. Haridwar Highways Project also consented to such amendments and agreed to create corresponding securities in favour of the new lenders.

Due to operational and financial stress, Haridwar Highways Project's account was classified as a special mention account under the joint lenders' forum circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India. Consequently, the lenders constituted a joint lenders' forum and formulated a corrective action plan, which was approved for restructuring of the loan in 2014. Due to escalation of the project cost, lenders sanctioned additional facilities to Haridwar Highways Project from time to time.

As Haridwar Highways Project was unable to regularise its account and discharge its dues, its account was classified as a non-performing asset with effect from 2017. In 2024, the loans were assigned by the banks to National Asset Reconstruction Co. Thereafter, National Asset Reconstruction Co., in its capacity as a financial creditor, filed the insolvency petition against Haridwar Highways Project.  End

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.