The recent incident of firing at Khed Shivapur toll plaza has brought in the spotlight the ugly face of toll collection once more. A city-based right to information (RTI) activist has, in fact, moved the Bombay High Court claiming that the toll colleted at various toll plazas are much more than what should be charged.
City-based activist Sanjay Shirodkar has claimed that the state government is not following the formula specified by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) while specifying the charges at toll plazas in the state.
Shirodkar told dna, “I have already filed two public interest litigations in the Bombay High Court regarding toll. One of the PILs is about wrong formula applied by the state government while charging toll, due to which commuters have to pay more than what they should actually be paying.”
He added, “According to the resolution of the Central government, the toll should be charged on a formula which states that the base fee should be multiplied by wholesale price index of current financial year divided by wholesale price index of 1997. On the basis of this formula, the toll charges at Pune-Mumbai stretch of national highway number 4 should be Rs53 but the toll charges which are being charged are Rs87.”
Shirodkar has objected to the toll charges collected on Mumbai-Pune expressway.
He said, “There is a rule that if more than one lakh passenger car units (PCU) are passing through any highway in a day, the toll charges should not be increased. We have calculated PCU of Mumbai-Pune expressway on July 1, 2012 and the PCU was 1,18,469 and the next day it was 1,14,518 which suggests that the toll of Mumbai-Pune expressway should be increased from that day.”
dna contacted Ajay Saxena, who works with public private partnership cell of the state government. He said, “The problem with the toll is more regarding the services provided after charging toll. On some highways, it has been observed that toll is being charged but good quality of road is not provided to the commuters. Earlier, there were not many regulations, but recently the state government came up with regulations against toll collections agencies. According to those regulations, the agencies will have to provide quality service after charging toll from commuters or they will face action.”
The toll what it is, what it should be
Activist Sanjay Shirodkar calculated the toll that should be charged
Road Toll charges Actual toll
as per formula charges
Kagal-Satara Rs62 Rs 124
Anewadi (Satara)-Khed Shivapur Rs24 Rs50
Khed Shivapur-Pune Rs15 Rs70
Mumbai-Pune NH-4 Rs53 Rs87
Pune-Shirur Rs30 Rs37
Shirur-Ahmednagar Rs26 Rs35
Ahmednagar-Aurangabad Rs58 Rs75
Pune-Belgaum Rs167 Rs294
Source-http://www.dnaindia.com
Sir,I appreciate you for your efforts against social injustice ..I am also fighting against the toll system of India.ecause,so many toll fee collecting agencies are not following the formulas of NHAI.Some agencies are collecting excess toll fees for various vehicles.I have collected the information regarding this issue through Right to Information Act that during Nov,2012 to Mar,2013 The Konark Infrastructure pvt Ltd(toll fee collecting agency) has collected as an excess toll fees of Rs.15.95.825/-@ Hattargi user fee plaza(Karnataka) for various vehicles on National Highway.After getting this nformation I filed complaint to Ministry of Road Transport & Highway. to take proper action.After various followups
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways imposed the penalty of Rs1 crore 82 lakhs 73 thousand against the toll fee collecting agency for excess toll fee collection and recovered in Jan,2014.but as per the NHAI rule this imposed penalty amount is too small…asper the rule it should be more than 900 crores…Only I need help to fight against this issue…pl contect me on 9902719325…
With Regards
PRASHANT BURGE