Ranchi, Nov. 16: The company working on widening the Ranchi-Jamshedpur stretch of NH-33 is likely to be penalised or have its contract terminated for inordinate delay in completing the Rs 1,500 crore project that was supposed to have been wrapped up by June.

Madhucon Projects, the concessionaire for the 2013 commissioned project to convert a 163km stretch of the highway into a four-lane carriageway, is understood to have sought time till 2017 to complete the project, citing land acquisition issues.

But, NHAI officials indicated an extension of the deadline was unlikely.

"There is no provision of time extensions in BOT-annuity projects. Delay means delay and it is very much likely that a penalty would imposed. We need to find out whether the agency (Madhucon) is to be entirely blamed for the delays or other stakeholders are responsible, too," NHAI regional officer Chandan Vatsa said, adding that the company's application was, however, yet to be cleared by NHAI headquarters or Union ministry of road transport & highways.

Madhucon, NHAI sources said, had asked for an extension till mid-2017, which means traffic movement between the state capital and Jamshedpur was unlikely to get streamlined before another year and a half.

The main problem cited by Madhucon, the sources said, was on the Greenfield stretch between Vikas Vidyalaya and Rampur on the outskirts of the state capital (but both on opposite flanks of NH-33) where land was yet to be acquired to facilitate the road widening.

The over 20-km stretch is within the 163-km road length that is being widened to four lanes - the entire project stretching beyond Jamshedpur up to Mohulia. The 20-km stretch is also part of the Ranchi Ring Road (80km in all), which would ease traffic along the main thoroughfares of the state capital by ensuring that district-bound heavy vehicles would no longer need to traverse through the city and choke its already crowded roads.

As of now, four phases of Ranchi Ring Road is complete and the state government recently resolved to complete the remaining phases in the next year or so.

The project of widening NH-33 was launched in 2013 amid much fanfare, but work has been slow because of pending clearances and land acquisition delays even though the project was being monitored by the state road construction department and NHAI.

The exact date when Madhucon put in its application could not be ascertained. NHAI sources claimed the company contacted NHAI headquarters recently. "It approached NHAI headquarters either in the last week of October or the first week of November," said an NHAI official in Ranchi.

NHAI headquarters indicated a stern response on Madhucon's application. "Appropriate action would be taken soon," said NHAI's Delhi-based general manager Anil Kumar, who looks after the projects in Jharkhand.