Bombay HC chides MSRDC on expressway toll issue

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has pulled up the MSRDC for resorting to delaying tactics as regards placing its views on the Sumit Mullick committee recommendations on toll collection on the Mumbai-Pune e-way.

The committee had recommended that based on August 2016 traffic flow, the government should pay Rs 1,326 crore as compensation to the contractor for the remaining term of the contract till 2019 if it wanted to terminate the contract. The MSRDC’s not taking any action till date invited the court’s wrath.

A division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Riyaz Chagla was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former MNS legislator Nitin Sardesai and activist Pravin Wategaonkar on the need to curtail the toll collection contract on the Mumbai-Pune e-way. The petitioners said that letting the contractor continue to collect toll would result in losses to the state exchequer.

Senior counsel Girish Godbole, amicus for Mr Wategaonkar, drew the attention of the court to the Mullick committee report and said that the MSRDC was guilty of dragging its feet and had done nothing about it for the past three months.

However, senior counsel Janak Dwarkadas refuted the allegations and said that the assumption that the assured amount of Rs 4330 crore to the contractor had been recovered was wrong and should not be heeded.

After hearing all sides, the court told the MSRDC that as per the letter of the state to the road authority following the Mullick committee report, it had asked the MSRDC to give its comments immediately and there was no ambiguity with regard to the same.