Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power with the promise of a toll-free Maharashtra, but a study conducted by the Maharashtra State Road Development Road Corporation (MSRDC) on the 710-km-long Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway as part of the detailed project report (DPR) of the project has indicated that motorists would have to pay toll for around 40 years to make the Rs 46,000-crore project viable.
The MSRDC aims to collect Rs 1,000 crore yearly for 40 years via toll collection on the proposed Super Communication Expressway — the dream project of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis — and would connect the financial capital Mumbai with Mr Fadnavis’ hometown Nagpur.
Kiran Kurundkar, joint managing director, MSRDC, said, “We are currently in the final stages of completing the preparation of the DPR for the project.
However, when it comes to making the project viable we would have to levy toll for around 40 years with a target of Rs 1,000 crore on per annum basis.”
He added, “We anticipate that toll won’t have to be levied for three years after the completion of the expressway as we have to attract people and make them realise that it is more time-saving than the traditional routes between Mumbai and Nagpur. Thereafter, toll would have to be levied for 40 years.”
However, the exact figure as to how much toll light or heavy motor vehicles is being calculated as of now. The figures are expected to be out once the whole DPR of the project is prepared.
Currently, MSRDC has floated request for qualification (RFQ) for the project and is in the process of pooling land for the construction of the expressway. The Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway was announced by Mr Fadnavis in August 2015 and is one of the state’s most ambitious and game-changing projects.
The state needs around 10,000 hectares of land for the construction of the expressway. Between Bhiwandi and Nagpur around 84 per cent of the land is agricultural, 13 per cent fallow and 1.92 per cent forest land. The corridor will pass through 350 villages from 27 talukas where non-cultivable landowners will get a developed plot of 25 per cent of the area given up by them. For those with irrigated or cultivable land, it will be 30 per cent of the land given up.
