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Toll tales: No respite for Mumbai motorists after all

According to Public Works Department (PWD) minister Chandrakantdada Patil, the exemption would cost the state Rs 250 crore annually till 2026 as small cars form 85% vehicles passing through the points. At other toll projects, they form only 35%.

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A huge financial outgo may create hurdles in the plan to exempt light vehicles like cars from toll payment at the five entry points to Mumbai, contrary to the poll promise made by BJP government.
The already cash-strapped state government may have to pay an average of Rs 250 crore annually till 2026 to exempt small vehicles from toll.

According to Public Works Department (PWD) minister Chandrakantdada Patil, the exemption would cost the state Rs 250 crore annually till 2026 as small cars form 85% vehicles passing through the points. At other toll projects, they form only 35%.

"We are in discussions with the finance department for the payment of this amount," Patil said. The five entry points are Vashi, Dahisar, Mulund, Airoli and LBS Marg.

"There isn't any buy back or termination clause in the concession agreement," informed Jayant Mhaiskar, Managing Director of MEP Infrastructure, the firm collecting toll at the entry points. He said that light vehicles comprise up to 70 per cent of the toll-paying traffic. Therefore, motorists may have to continue to shell out toll till 2016.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has granted toll collection to MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd till November 19, 2026.

The state government had set up a committee under then additional chief secretary (PWD) Anand Kulkarni to look into the issue and Patil said the report had been completed by additional chief secretary Sumit Malik after Kulkarni's retirement.

However, a senior PWD official said that it was likely that the state government may allow the system to continue till the end of the concession period as the buyback or reimbursement was expensive. "You are actually buying out their projected revenues for the remaining years," he explained.

"The problem with many toll contracts is that they were drafted for the benefit of contractors, with some even lacking a buyback clause," the official admitted.

The toll waiver for light vehicles, like private cars, will have a major impact in Mumbai and Thane, where civic polls are due in early 2017.

From June 1, 2015, 11 toll nakas under the PWD's jurisdiction and one under the MSRDC were closed, with the state government buying them back.

Cars, jeeps and buses were exempted from paying toll at 53 toll nakas – PWD's 27 and MSRDC's 26 – with the state reimbursing contractors. The exemption was later extended to school buses.

The first toll road in Maharashtra was the Jaisingpur bypass in Kolhapur in the 1990s. This was later extended to roads like the Thane- Bhiwandi bypass and the Mumbai- Pune Expressway.

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