For the last 12 years, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has been made to pay the toll on the 94-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway without a discount, which has led to the already cash-strapped body suffer losses running into crores.
Unlike state buses, it is the private bus operators that are supposed to pay the undiscounted toll. But both the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and Ideal Road Builders (IRB) Infrastructure Developers have compelled the MSRTC to pay the discounted toll for plying on the Expressway daily.
The concession agreement signed 12 years ago between the IRB and the MSRDC, accessed by The Asian Age, stated that both the parties would charge a discounted amount as toll for the state-run MSRTC buses. According to the agreement, the provisions for toll for the private bus and state-run MSRTC buses are different.
For example, the toll for the private buses on the Expressway from April 1, 2014 up to March 31, 2017 is Rs 572 and for the ST buses the toll would have been Rs 465, charged after a discount of Rs 107. However, currently ST buses are also being charged Rs 572.
The MSRTC claims that it has been following up with the MSRDC to charge them the discounted toll as was decided in the concession agreement and that the MSRDC should also refund the MSRTC the excess toll amount it has collected over the past 12 years.
Commenting on the matter, the managing director of MSRTC, Ranjit Singh Deol said, “I have been in communication with the MSRDC that the MSRTC should be charged toll according to the concession agreement between IRB and MSRDC and not the toll equal to that of private bus operators.”
There are around 550 ST buses of the MSRTC plying between Mumbai and Pune daily that are using the Expressway and are charged the toll equal to that of private buses.
Further, ST buses of neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka also use the Expressway on a daily basis and end up paying toll amount equal to that of a private bus operator.
Toll activists, however, have alleged that the state government is deliberately acting blind on the issue. “Firstly, we had to fight for making the concession agreement public and now we will fight for making the government charge as was decided in the concession agreement. The government while issuing toll notification further notifying the toll slabs back in 2004 smartly removed the clause to grant discount on the toll for the ST buses,” said, Vivek Velankar, a Pune-based toll analyst.
An e-mail sent to IRB Infrastructure Developer’s spokesperson for clarification on the matter remained unanswered.
While the managing director of MSRDC, Radheshyam Mopalwar, claimed, “There was an amendment later in the bid documents which allows us to charge the equal amount toll for ST and private buses.” However, Mr Mopalwar refused to comment on as to what the amendment was.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Shirodkar, toll activist, said, “If there was amendment later why is the same not in public domain There cannot be any amendment after concession agreement is signed between both the parties. By doing this, the MSRDC is allowing private companies to make more profit.”
