The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s protest underscores the political travails on the issue of toll for use of roads and bridges.
Nor is it the first time the levy has been opposed. More than two lakh commuters traverse the Delhi-Gurgaon-Jaipur National Highway every day. Their plight needs hardly be stressed when they are caught up in queues, often several km long, because of any hold-up at the toll plaza. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda proposed to buy out the plaza, not wanting commuters to take their ire out on his party during elections. But rules do not permit the plan.
The concessionaire in this case was found wanting, and his refusal to execute even court orders did not evoke any penal action from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The contractor is now seeking to find a way out, obviously under political pressure, what with the election round the corner.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s statement that the tolling process is far from transparent explains how the rates are fixed in connivance with the concessionaire and government authorities, to the chagrin of the public who have to shell out a few hundred rupees for using a small stretch of a National Highway built in public-private partnership mode.
The worst part is toll collection on roads taken up for widening without work commencing at several places.
The concessionaries are raking in millions every day. The government is moving to make amends. The Comptroller and Auditor-General has opposed a move to combine various projects into one entity, arguing that this method will drive up project cost. It has sought the government’s comments on two projects, stressing that their cost would have been lower, had they been split into several parts.
But Mr. Chavan’s justification of the toll policy — “if toll collection is stopped, construction of new roads will come to a halt” — is different from his Haryana counterpart’s. The MNS is seeking to gain political mileage, asking the public not to pay toll.
The main allegation is that the cost is mostly recovered much earlier than the time limit set in the contract, and the people who parted with their land for road construction are being asked to pay for using the same stretch. A parliamentary panel has questioned the government’s policy to levy toll when it had already raised the fund through a cess on petrol and recommended that the toll policy be discontinued.
