The NHAI has fixed November 6 as the last date for the filing of representation by contractors whose projects have been delayed. As many as 20 highway contracts, including those of L&T Infrastructure, HCC, Essel Infra, MBL Infra, and Soma Enterprises are staring at termination if their explanation for the delay is not convincing enough. Some experts like Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, director and practice lead (transport and logistics), CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory, believe that "the NHAI has taken a decisive step around issuing termination notices to concessionaires on some of the projects. This is positive for the sector and will help in moving past stuck/stalled projects, and in a way, act as a deterrent for any future aggressive bidding by developers. However, genuine concessionaires should not be penalized, which could cast a gloom over the sector that is just out of the woods and affect fresh investments by key players." However, former road secretary Vijay Chibber believes that "If all these projects are actually terminated, the infrastructure would be flooded with NPAs, as these companies have a large presence in the sector." An NHAI official said, "No new project has been terminated. According to the procedures, before the termination of the project, all defaulters have been given the chance to appeal. They have been asked to submit their objections on why their projects should not be terminated. The notice was put up on the website for three days and was removed today (Friday) because the purpose was solved." Some of the projects, which are being implemented in West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Odisha, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, received termination notices back in 2014, while many of these contractors were issued termination notices in 2016 and this year.