Even as political parties capitalise on the public anger against road toll in Maharashtra, a report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the State Legislature, tabled in the State Assembly in December 2013, points to to irregularities in toll collection.
The PAC report said there are several instances where the toll operator continued to recover money from passengers even though the recovery period had lapsed. The toll collected was not used for the maintenance and repair of roads in most cases, it said.
The PAC listed the example of the Khamgaon-Jalna Bypass Link Road saying that even after the period for toll recovery ended, the operator was given a four-year extension. “During the period of toll recovery, the contractor did nothing to maintain the roads. He completed only 60 per cent of the work but recovered 90 per cent of the money and then disappeared. Money from both the State and Central government was used for the scheme,” the report said.
The report also said a 100-kilometre stretch on the bypass had been dug up and not repaired for four years resulting in a rise in road accidents. “There have been 500 deaths due to accidents on this road in the last four years,” the report said. Despite this, the contractor had not been blacklisted.
It also pointed to the rising number of accidents on the Mumbai-Pune expressway and said the contract of the toll operator needed to be examined to see whether it was meeting safety obligations. “The expressway does not have reflectors at the required locations. Several portions of it are not maintained resulting in cases of tyre bursts,” it said.
It also said it was mandatory for toll operators to display the amount recovered so far and the expiry date of the toll contract. However, this was not being done.
The report has also expressed concern over the fact that that despite a law being passed in 2009 which allowed people living within 5 kilometres of a toll booth to pay just ten per cent of the toll, this was not being strictly followed.
