Mumbai: A group of activists filed a public interest litigation in Bombay high court seeking that the state government stop collection of toll on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway as the sum of Rs 2,869 crore had already been collected by the contractor. The petitioners in the PIL alleged that collection of toll despite meeting the expected amount was causing wrongful gain to the contractor and was against public interest.
A bench of chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice G.S. Kulkarni on April 19, 2017, issued notices to the government and contractor and fixed April 25 as the next date of hearing, where it directed the petitioners to make some changes in the PIL.
As per the contract between MSRDC and IRB, the anticipated toll during 2007-2008 and 2016-2017 was supposed to be around Rs 1,800 crore, but the latter pocketed around Rs 2,700 crore by December 2016. Also, MSRDC claimed that there was no clause in the contract signed between MSRDC and IRB to stop collecting toll.
On April 25, the high court gave liberty to the petitioners to implead the Union of India and asked the respondents i.e. contractor and state government, to file their replies within six weeks. The matter has been placed for hearing on June 25.
