Delhi-Gurgaon expressway gets a new operator

July 17, 2014

Written by Sandali Tiwari | Gurgaon |

 SUMMARY
It will also be responsible for collecting toll at Kherki Daula plaza, which marks the end of the stretch.
 
 
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The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway has a new operator — Skylark Highways Solutions Ltd. The company will carry out maintenance and toll duties on the 28-km stretch beginning Wednesday. It will also be responsible for collecting toll at Kherki Daula plaza, which marks the end of the stretch.

According to figures provided by concessionaire Millennium City Expressways Pvt Ltd (MCEPL), about 2.5 lakh vehicles use the expressway to enter Gurgaon from Delhi every day and over 50,000 vehicles cross the Kherki Daula toll plaza to go to the new sectors of Gurgaon — Sectors 58-115 and Manesar.

Skylark Highways Solutions Ltd has been given a nine-month contract. After nine months, its work will be assessed before being made permanent. If made permanent, the contract will continue till 2023.

“We took over the toll plaza at Kherki Daula on Tuesday but will begin operations only from midnight. It will take us a few days to look into the problems at this particular toll plaza,” a spokesperson from Skylark said.

The new operator is expected to drive up the toll revenue. According to MCEPL officials, the toll revenue on weekdays from the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway is approximately Rs 36 lakh.

In order to check bribing at toll booths, which brings down toll revenue by almost 10 per cent, the concessionaire is planning to install Automatic Vehicle Classification and Counting machines. This machine will remove any possibility of human interference to determine the value of toll tax.

The expressway is also set to get a facelift and the contract for the same has been awarded to two Gurgaon-based companies — Gawar Constructions and NKC Infrastructure. While Gawar will work to recarpet the Delhi-Jaipur road, NKC Infrastructure will work on the Delhi-Gurgaon road. The 28-km expressway that has 21 entry points and 28 exit points will don a new look by the end of this year, an MCEPL official said.

Source-http://indianexpress.com/

 

 

Delhi-Gurgaon expressway gets a new operator

July 17, 2014

The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway has a new operator — Skylark Highways Solutions Ltd. The company will carry out maintenance and toll duties on the 28-km stretch beginning Wednesday. It will also be responsible for collecting toll at Kherki Daula plaza, which marks the end of the stretch.

According to figures provided by concessionaire Millennium City Expressways Pvt Ltd (MCEPL), about 2.5 lakh vehicles use the expressway to enter Gurgaon from Delhi every day and over 50,000 vehicles cross the Kherki Daula toll plaza to go to the new sectors of Gurgaon — Sectors 58-115 and Manesar.

Skylark Highways Solutions Ltd has been given a nine-month contract. After nine months, its work will be assessed before being made permanent. If made permanent, the contract will continue till 2023.

“We took over the toll plaza at Kherki Daula on Tuesday but will begin operations only from midnight. It will take us a few days to look into the problems at this particular toll plaza,” a spokesperson from Skylark said.

The new operator is expected to drive up the toll revenue. According to MCEPL officials, the toll revenue on weekdays from the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway is approximately Rs 36 lakh.

In order to check bribing at toll booths, which brings down toll revenue by almost 10 per cent, the concessionaire is planning to install Automatic Vehicle Classification and Counting machines. This machine will remove any possibility of human interference to determine the value of toll tax.

The expressway is also set to get a facelift and the contract for the same has been awarded to two Gurgaon-based companies — Gawar Constructions and NKC Infrastructure. While Gawar will work to recarpet the Delhi-Jaipur road, NKC Infrastructure will work on the Delhi-Gurgaon road. The 28-km expressway that has 21 entry points and 28 exit points will don a new look by the end of this year, an MCEPL official said.

Source:The Hindu

Centre looks at options to finance Delhi-Jaipur e-way

November 14, 2013

Mihir | New Delhi |

 

SUMMARY–Road transport ministry is looking at a slew of options, including a two per cent surcharge on the sale of land for residential purposes along the expressway.

 

To part-finance the cost of constructing the 265-km Delhi-Jaipur expressway project, the road transport ministry is looking at a slew of options, including a two per cent surcharge on the sale of land for residential purposes along the expressway.

The funds collected by way of the surcharge, according to the proposal, will be routed to the Central government and used subsequently for the purpose of constructing the expressway.

“Our estimates show that this surcharge will give us around Rs 4,700 crore, which will fund a large part of our project cost. If you exclude the cost of land acquisition, the project is estimated to cost around Rs 7,000 crore,” said a senior road transport ministry official.

He further explained that any residential project along the expressway will need entry and exit points for its traffic and this surcharge will be a payment for providing that exit to those residential colonies.

The Delhi-Jaipur expressway is the first expressway project that the Central government hopes to work on. The other expressway projects in the pipeline are the Delhi-Meerut, Mumbai-Vadodra and Eastern Peripheral expressways.

This proposal, along with others, will be discussed by an Inter-ministerial Council headed by the road secretary and have members from the finance ministry, Planning Commission and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The other proposals include developing the expressway by funding the shortfall through a viability gap funding, allowing the company developing the project rights to collect tolls also on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and Delhi-Jaipur highway after their concession period is over and government funding the construction of the project.

“Allowing the expressway company to collect toll on the other highway connecting Jaipur will also take care of the competing highway issue. Enabling the expressway concessionaire to collect toll on these highway should not be a problem, as we will put a clause in the bid document for Delhi-Jaipur expressway,” said the official. He added that the concession period for Delhi-Jaipur will end in 2023 and Delhi-Gurgaon is set to end by 2024.

According to current estimates, the Delhi-Jaipur expressway would not be able to break even in terms of total traffic that would use it. It is estimated that the expressway will cater to a traffic of 25,000 passenger cars daily but requires 42,000 passenger cars to break even.

The NHAI had raised a question on the viability of the project and said that it was neither feasible through toll nor through government funding. It had also said that private companies would not be interested in getting into a high-cost expressway project at this juncture.

Source-http://www.financialexpress.com

 

Gurgaon e-way revenues up Rs 60 lakh a month says NHAI

October 29, 2013

Abhinav Garg & Dipak K Dash, TNN |

NEW DELHI: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) told the Delhi high court on Monday that revenues from the 32-lane toll plaza on Gurgaon expressway increased by Rs 60 lakh in a single month after it commissioned a survey to monitor collections.

The highway authority said the KPMG survey, which estimated the traffic volumes on the road, proved that the private concessionaire operating the expressway “can’t be trusted” because it had been under-reporting traffic.

“The operator is receiving money but not accounting (it). We found that the handheld devices with which they collect toll during peak hours are not connected to the main server for escrow accounts. Same is the case with extra toll booths they set up. This money was not accounted for,” senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, representing NHAI, claimed before Justice Manmohan Singh.

Sethi said once the survey findings were filed in HC and a show cause notice on underreporting of traffic issued to the private operator,Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), “our revenue for September, collected in October, increased by Rs 60 lakh.”

The KPMG survey, which has been refuted by DGSCL, had claimed underreporting of vehicles causing a daily revenue leakage to the tune of Rs 15.58 lakh during August 2012 and July 2013.

When Justice Singh asked if the authority was open to “finding a cure” to the dispute if, for arguments sake, the operator was willing to refund the amount allegedly siphoned, Sethi replied in the negative. “All that is now history. We can’t repose our faith in the operator. We have learnt from our mistakes,” the counsel said, making it clear that NHAI was not interested in a settlement with the firm.

On being further prodded by the court, the counsel claimed despite interventions by various authorities, commuters continue to suffer as DGSCL has not implemented reforms nor is it trying to improve traffic flow. Answering the court’s apprehension on the future of the toll plaza if it sanctions termination of the contract, NHAI indicated it will operate it till it finds a suitable replacement. The court will hear DGSCL’s defence on Friday.

“We have strongly refuted the KPMG survey findings and would take this up in the court as well in the next hearing,” the DGSCL spokesperson said. “The survey was done manually which is prone to human error and did not employ scientific and automated vehicle classification and counting (AVCC) system as stipulated in the concession agreement and neither did it correctly account for exemptions and run-throughs of traffic.”

Regarding the variation of toll revenues across months, the spokesperson said traffic volumes and revenues in the festive months of September and October were always higher than the holiday and monsoon months of July and August.

Economic Offences Wing unlikely to probe toll ‘fraud’ by Gurgaon e-way firm

October 15, 2013

Neeraj Chauhan & Dipak Kumar Dash, TNN |

 
NEW DELHI: The Economic Offences Wing(EOW) of Delhi Police is likely to turn down NHAI’s request to investigate irregularities in the reporting of toll collection by the Gurgaon expressway operator.The EOW will cite jurisdictional issues as well as the fact that the CBI specializes in investigating such matters while expressing its inability to take up the probe into what looks like a major under-reporting of revenue by Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL). NHAI in its application had alleged that it lost Rs 24 crore due to under-reporting between August 2012 and July 2013.

The EOW is looking into the matter as part of a preliminary enquiry. A senior Delhi Police officer said, “The primary opinion of investigators and experts in our unit is that the CBI has already investigated a similar case and it is fit to probe such a case. Also, the irregularities have taken place in Gurgaon and the EOW has no jurisdiction there”.

Sources said the NHAI and the highways ministry will be informed once the final decision is taken. EOW, a specialized unit of Delhi Police, usually investigates frauds of more than Rs 2 crore and cases referred by Delhi courts. However, it has never investigated a case related to Gurgaon, said sources.

Alleging a breach of trust, NHAI had complained that the operator, DGSCL, resorted to ‘dishonesty’ by diverting toll for its own use. NHAI has said the concessionaire, its directors, officers and other persons were party to ‘criminal conspiracy’ with an intent of fraud.

 

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Gurgaon expressway snarls causes concern, says Canon CEO

October 15, 2013

Gurgaon,  — Canon India president and CEO Kazutada Kobayashi Monday termed the regular traffic snarls on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway a “cause of concern” and the poor infrastructure here a scar on millennium city’s developing face.

“Traffic problems on National Highway 8 (Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway), specially near toll plazas, are a cause of concern,” said Kobayashi, who has been living in Gurgaon for more than a decade since the company set up its Indian headquarters in the city in 1997.

“I was caught in long traffic jams at several occasions,” he said, adding he keeps a time margin when he heads for the airport to avoid missing his flights.

Noting that Gurgaon has rapidly emerged on the world map, Kobayashi said its dynamic growth and fast becoming a growing hub of MNCs deserves appreciation but its poor infrastructure and lack of maintained roads was the “dark side of the story”.

Speaking on Canon’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, he said that enrolment of girl children in senior classes in Ferozepur Namak village in Mewat district, some 35 km from Gurgaon, increased by 45 percent from last year after Canon adopted the government school in the village.

The number of teachers at the school also increased from nine to 44.

Canon undertook the responsibility of developing the village infrastructure in November 2012 to provide seamless support to its inhabitants with core interventions in eye care, education and environment for a period of three years.

Other CSR projects undertaken by the company include adoption of three Rapid Metro stations for creating a green belt around them in Gurgaon and a photo exchange programme between Canon India and Canon China wherein kids in the adopted villages in both countries click pictures with Canon cameras and share them across boundaries with each other.

Canon India now plans to initiate its village adoption programm

Source-http://india.nydailynews.com 

NHAI moves police against Gurgaon expressway firm

October 7, 2013

Prawesh Lama , Mihir Mishra : New Delhi,

 

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against the operator of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway — the Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL).A senior government official said a complaint letter had been sent to the EOW. “The complaint was filed after a KPMG audit found the concessionaire under reporting the passenger car units (PCUs) crossing toll plazas by around half,” the official said. The move by NHAI comes in the wake of specific directions from the road transport ministry to file an FIR, by way of a letter dated October 1, 2013, in the wake of the forensic audit report submitted by KPMG.

The ministry is also of the view that terminating the contract with the concessionaire is the only option available and buying back the concession is not an option.

Confirming the receipt of the complaint, Delhi Police said it was in the process of conducting an inquiry. “We need a day or two to look into the allegations. We will find out if the case falls in our jurisdiction. A case will be registered depending on the inquiry,” Dharmendra Kumar, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), said.

KPMG was asked to carry out a forensic audit of the traffic using the toll plazas at the Gurgaon expressway in December 2011 and it came out with its report in July 2013. The global audit firm conducted a week long, round-the-clock traffic study in July at the Gurgaon toll expressway and found that the concessionaire was underreporting at least 79,000 passenger car units (PCUs) daily.

Based on the calculations, NHAI is estimated to have lost Rs 24 crore in 10 months due to the underreporting.

The DGSCL has contested the traffic numbers presented by KPMG. “It appears that KMPG has not done any traffic count study and only presented figures provided to them by a third party vendor, which is a security services company. Our toll plazas are equipped with the most advanced Automatic Vehicle Classification and Counting (AVCC) systems which is completely computerised and there is no scope for any human error or intervention. We are scrutinising the manual data given to us. Once this data is proven incorrect, we will take strong action against the parties responsible,” a DGSCL spokesperson said.

 

Source-http://www.indianexpress.com

 

 

NHAI asked to sort out Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project issue on its own

September 27, 2013

By YASHODHARA DASGUPTA, ET Bureau

The road transport and highways ministry has directed the NHAI to sort out the buy-back of the contentious Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project.

(The road transport and highways ministry has directed the NHAI to sort out the buy-back of the contentious Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project.)

NEW DELHI: In a sharp rebuke to the highways authority, the road transport and highways ministry has directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to sort out the buy-back of the contentious Delhi-Gurgaon expresswayproject through the legal process on its own instead of involving the government in a contractual dispute.”It is now for the NHAI to pursue the matter through the legal process as buying back the concession is the first step before other options can be examined,” said a letter sent by the ministry on Thursday to NHAI chairman RP Singh.

The ministry sent the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by ET, after the authority recently wrote to the government asking it to buy back the concession instead of getting into litigation.

Suspecting criminal liability on part of the concessionaire, the ministry has also requested the Central Vigilance Committee to investigate and refer the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation if a criminal case is made. “There is no point in referring the matter to the government as it is essentially a contractual dispute which is to be resolved and pursued to its logical end by the NHAI,” the letter said.

The NHAI had on Wednesday stated that the case, which is in Delhi High Court, was being prolonged on “one pretext or the other” while the lenders and the concessionaire, DGSCL, were raising extraneous issues and diverting the main issue. It also called upon the Haryana government for “finding fault with NHAI” instead of taking over by paying Rs 335 crore termination payment under political force majeure (unforeseeable circumstances).

But the ministry believes this would be more expensive than if they took over the project at a cost of Rs 130 crore. “It is patently clear that the government of Haryana is not pursuing its earlier intention of buying out this project. The only logical option therefore before the NHAI is to buy-back the concession as provided for in the agreement, at the earliest,” the ministry said in the letter.

The 28-km Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project has been embroiled in controversy over various issues including substandard service provided to commuters. The NHAI served the concessionaire with a termination notice, which was challenged in the Delhi High Court. The ministry has sought the assistance of the Attorney General to represent the NHAI in the court.

“The lenders, led by IDFC, extended Rs 1,600 crore to the concessionaire although this was not approved by NHAI. The concessionaire is not sharing details of the escrow account from where they have withdrawn Rs 676 crore by way of an inter-corporate deposit. We have asked the Enforcement Directorate to inquire if this contravenes any law of the land,” said a ministry official.

Source- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Blank toll receipts stretch Delhi-Gurgaon expressway logjam, road min wants probe

September 27, 2013

Timsy Jaipuria | New Delhi
 

SUMMARY  The ministry, official sources said, has forwarded these complaints to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for necessary action

While the legal battle over the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway continues between the government, lender IDFC and the developer DS Constructions, the ministry of road transport and highways has received several complaints from commuters alleging that the developer is issuing blank toll receipts. The ministry, official sources said, has forwarded these complaints to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for necessary action.The NHAI in March had issued a showcause notice to DSC for not depositing the entire toll collected in the escrow account as required. “The ministry has received numerous complaints regarding people getting blank toll receipts at the Gurgaon toll plaza and such a matter needs to be looked in and investigated,” the ministry told the NHAI in a letter written by joint secretary (highways) Rohit Kumar Singh.

The matter came to light in April and the roads ministry has taken up the issue with the authority more than once. It, sources said, also attached one of the blank toll receipts it got from a complainant with the latest letter, asking the authority to inquire and find out the genesis of such blank toll receipts. The ministry asked the authority to take up the issue with the concessionaire, saying it is a clear violation of the concession agreement signed between the authority and the developer.

NHAI’s March notice to DCS said: “In the last several days, the revenue collection is falling and the NHAI feels that the concessionaire is diverting the toll revenue instead of depositing it into the escrow account.”

The authority also added that the concessionaire was also not promoting electronic tolling and monthly passes to the benefit of local traffic. With the increasing number of complaints, the government has made up its mind that it no longer wants the current developer to run the expressway.

Road transport minister Oscar Fernandez last week said that the government would make a concerted plea in the Delhi high court for an early decision.

The decision for joint representation by all wings of the central government and the Haryana government was taken in a high-level meeting between Fernandez, state CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, DSC and senior officials of the road ministry.

DS Constructions chief HS Narula is understood to have told the minister that the company is not interested in going for an out-of-the-court settlement.

A senior road ministry official privy to the meeting said the government also told the concessionaire that it had not met the MoU conditions signed last year but the concessionaire dismissed the charges, adding the government had not cooperated with it.

The issue is in the court since last two years now.

“We want an early decision because the public is suffering because of the delay in the decision and we going to strongly plead our case,” Fernandez said.

FE in an earlier report said the IDFC-led consortium’s R1,600-crore exposure to the expressway project is in trouble because the relevant loan agreement does not empower the lead lender to replace the over-leveraged concessionaire – DSC – even in case of default.

The NHAI had contested the developer changing the lenders (taking much higher amounts of loans) without its consent although these loans were based on the future revenue streams of the expressway project.

Source -http://www.financialexpress.com

Government in favour of buying back Gurgaon expressway project

September 27, 2013

Dipak Kumar Dash, TNN |

NEW DELHI: A day after NHAI wrote to the highway ministry to either buy back the Gurgaon expressway project or hand it over to Haryana government, the ministry said it has always pushed the first option. It wants NHAI to resolve the “contractual dispute” rather than refer the matter to the government.In his letter to NHAI chief R P Singh, highway secretary Vijay Chhibber said Haryana government does not seem to be pursuing its earlier intention of buying out the project. “The only logical option, therefore, before NHAI is to buy back the concession as provided for in the agreement, at the earliest,” he said.

This observation comes after Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had claimed on many occasions to acquire the project and remove toll plazas for public good. None from Haryana government could be reached for a comment. Highways minister Oscar Fernandes was out of city.

Chhibber has also written there is a “prima-facie evidence of criminal liability” in this project and the ministry has initiated the process to refer the case to central agencies – CVC, CBI and enforcement directorate.

In the past there have been several questions on reckless loan provided by public sector banks to project developer DGSCL without even getting NHAI approval. NHAI has also charged the developer of diverting a portion of the loan to its parent company.

Ministry sources said this is a fit case for investigation since there have been several controversies relating to the project and the manner in which stakeholders have go for negotiations in the first place to save country’s one of the first public-private-partnership (PPP) projects and then falling apart.

 

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