Excel India Desk
Arvind Kumar IAS, Special Chief Secretary,Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD) organized a capacity building programme on legal disputes for his officers in Hyderabad on August 23, Tuesday. This programme is attended by Supreme Court senior advocate and specialist on arbitration matters Rathan Singh.
Ratan Singh is a leading arbitrators in the country dealing with both domestic and international arbitration especially in the field of construction, engineering, infrastructure and mining.
As the MA&UD Department is dealing with several arbitration cases, this capacity-building session was organized to have complete clarity on construction law, understanding of work contracts, delays and extensions thereto, common disputes– their reasons and nature, and duties and obligations of Independent Consultants, Contract Administrators and Engineer-in-charge.
Major focus of the discussion was also on proper record-keeping for averting disputes. Ratan Singh spoke on the method and manner of dealing with construction disputes in India and around the globe. He spoke on the requirement of awareness of law, due diligence, and appointment of professionals for proper delay analysis for determining reasons attributable to the delay.
The discussion in the session also revolved around approach of arbitrators in construction arbitrations, and factors such as handing over of land versus mobilisation of resources by concessionaires which are common issues in such arbitration. Singh stressed on the requirement of preparing and updating baseline programme as and when the delay occurs, and the need for contemporaneous record-keeping and delay analysis, for mitigating probable disputes.
The session was attended by around 100 officials including Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar, MD HMWS&SB Dana Kishore, GHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar, CDMA director N. Satyanarayana, Secretary MA&UD C Sudarshan Reddy, MD HGCL Santhosh BM and all HODs and senior officials were among those turned up for the meeting.
