As per a survey conducted by Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), it is estimated that around Rs. 1.35 lakh crores are involved in contractual disputes in infrastructure projects in different courts of the country which is already facing the problem of huge backlog.   Government of India has taken up infrastructure developments of huge magnitude under Public-Private Participation (PPP) in the areas like irrigation, roads, ports and power projects, which need abundant private sector investments. The infrastructure projects involve lot of uncertainties during the implementation stage, innumerable conflicts/disputes between the employer and the contractor surface, day in and day out leading to disputes. Government has identified the dispute resolution in large public contracts is an area of growing concern.

Many foreign companies are willing to invest and set up joint venture projects in India but they apprehend that in case of any dispute the Indian courts would take long to decide the claim which in turn will lead to increase in overall cost of the project. Thus it can be said that slow dispute resolution process prevailing in the country is keeping the foreign investment at bay. Therefore, there is a compelling need to take steps to facilitate quick enforcement of contracts, easy recovery of monetary claims, reduce the pendency of cases in courts and hasten the process of dispute resolution. For the purpose of speeding up the dispute resolution process, alternate modes such as Arbitration, mediation, conciliation should be explored and brought into practice.

This paper explores the various dimensions of disputes arising out of infrastructure construction industry and their possibility of being resolved amicably by alternate modes of dispute resolution. The Alternate dispute resolution doesn’t declare one party as winner rather it promotes and calls for joint efforts of both the parties in resolution of disputes outside the courtrooms, which not only helps in early resolution of disputes but also keeps the relationship between the parties cordial for future partnerships. Thus the progress of the infrastructure projects would increase by implementing alternate means of dispute resolution.

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