Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday announced that people of the state will be given a huge relief by making the roads of the state toll-free. “The State Government will not grant an extension to any of toll companies and all toll plazas in the State will be removed on the expiry of existing agreements,” he said.
The Chief Minister, interacting with the media along with Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Singh Rouri and Revenue Minister Brahm Shankar Jimpa, announced to close Lachowal toll plaza on Hoshiapur-Tanda road as its term had expired on December 14, 2022.
Assailing the previous governments in the State for overburdening people by mortgaging Punjab’s roads for their vested interests, Mann said that the State Government will take every possible step to ensure that people are given a reprieve from it. This is the government of Punjabis and no stone will be left unturned to ensure their well-being, he said.
The Chief Minister said that the contract of Lachowal toll plaza had expired but the Company was indulging in several tantrums to get it extended. “The Company, managing the toll plaza, had sought an extension of 522 days citing Corona pandemic and farmer agitation,” said Mann, adding categorically that any other person would have agreed to the Company’s proposals, “but we kept the interests of Punjabis above that of the Company and decided to close it”.
“As it is an open loot of public money, the State Government has denied the proposal and freed the toll plaza for the people’s well-being. It is against the earlier practices when the people in power used to give such extensions without bothering about the people’s welfare, for their vested interests,” said Mann.
The Chief Minister declared that more such toll plazas will be closed in the coming days as the State Government is already preparing the list of all such defaulters.
He revealed that the Company, which was managing the toll plaza at Lachowal, had blatantly violated the norms since 2007. “The Company had not even adhered to a single clause of the agreement but the successive governments, since 2007, had turned a blind eye towards it,” he added.
“Total 27.9-km-long road was built by the Government at a cost of Rs 7.76 crore and handed over to the private company for maintenance in March 2007. Since then, it was collecting Rs 1.94 lakh daily but neither did it maintain the account properly nor fulfill other obligations,” said Mann, adding that the FIR was registered against the Company after taking legal advice.
At the same time, Mann declared that all the misappropriated money will be recovered.
The Chief Minister said that the Company had minted more than Rs 105 crore from this road without even constructing it. He said that in a brazen violation, the Company had diverted the funds collected from the toll in a private account.
The State Government has lodged a FIR against M/s PD Aggarwal Private Limited under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 466 (an aggravated form of forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 471 (fraudulent use of document), and others of the Indian Penal Code “for breaching the build operate transfer (BOT) agreement”.
“The toll company was allowed by previous governments to loot people…It collected more than Rs seven crore annually for 15 years in the name of maintenance,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that if needed, the State Government will blacklist this Company to ensure that no such plunder takes place in the future. “For several years, the people shelved huge amounts of money from their pockets to pass through this toll plaza,” he added.
Describing it as a major relief to people, Bhagwant Mann emphasized that people can travel freely on roads without paying a whopping toll on this toll plaza from Thursday.