The NSW Government is in talks with the contractor of Sydney's delayed light rail project to bring forward the completion date from March 2020 to December 2019 to appease residents and businesses, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Hearings have been held in Sydney today, looking into the impact of the CBD & South East Light Rail project's construction on locals, including whether the State Government's response has been adequate.

The project, which extends from Circular Quay to Randwick, has been a visible scar on the CBD and disrupted businesses along the route, leading the Government to offer compensation.

Transport for NSW's deputy secretary of infrastructure and services Stephen Troughton confirmed to the inquiry that there was a one-year delay to the project, with March 2020 as the completion date.

But he said the delays were being looked at.

"Altrac's [the consortium charged with building the light rail project] advice at the moment is that the current completion date of the project is March 2020," he told the inquiry.

"We are trying to work with them to try and bring that forward to a completion date around December 2019.

"There is nothing official at the moment, we are just working together in negotiations and discussions about how we might work together to bring an earlier completion date."

The Mayor of Randwick, Lindsay Shurey, told the inquiry some residents have been living in a nightmare.

She said the night-time noise of the construction was appalling for those nearby.

"They are told the noise … the work will stop at 12 o'clock at night, and at four o'clock in the morning … they are still going," she said.

Businesses paid $9m in financial assistance

Transport for NSW's coordinator general Margaret Prendergast said more than 80 per cent of businesses and residents who applied for financial assistance due to the disruptions were successful.

"To date, 88 businesses have been paid $9 million in financial assistance since last August. Eighty-one per cent of those that applied have been successful," she said.

She said the vacancy rates for businesses along the routes were about 7 per cent, which was similar to pre-construction figures.

Ms Prendergast said the noisy, disruptive part of the works would finish in January or February next year.

More than $9 million in assistance has been paid out to businesses and residents affected by the construction. ( Supplied: Google Maps )

No direct contract between state and rail builder

Mr Troughton also told the inquiry the Government did not have a direct contract with the actual builder of the light rail, Acciona.

"The relationship is with Altrac, which is a public-private partnership. Transport is not directly in contract with Acciona, or Alston, who are doing the systems and providing the vehicles, or Transdev, who are operating the system," Mr Troughton said.

Greens MP David Shoebridge said the contracts negotiated over the project had let the people of NSW down.

"There is no pressure that you can bring under the liquidated damages clause, no pressure, after 15 days it is just free delay to them because you have capped out damages at $7.5 million. That was a deliberate design structure because you handed all that responsibility over to a third party," he said.

Mr Shoebridge labelled the contract incompetent.

'Small' design aspects still in the works

Mr Troughton revealed not all the design and scope negotiations had been completed.

"A majority of the design has been completed. We are experiencing still one or two small bits of design," he said.

"We are doing bespoke bits of design for some of those. There are also some designs we are having to redo," he said, adding that he hoped there were no more scope changes.

"Things always come up. Unfortunately we still have to dig holes in the ground.

"The scope of the project has been clear for some time but we still get unknown issues such as heritage items. We might find a pipe in the wrong place."