The Centre is planning to hike toll on all expressways to increase monetary inflow into its dwindling coffers. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is working on a proposal to increase the toll by almost 25 per cent.
Earlier, the Road Ministry planned to bring toll on expressways on a par with that of highways, but succumbing to pressure from Planning Commission and private developers the ministry is now reworking on its toll policy. “There has been a steady demand from the developers to increase the toll on expressways, which offer better road quality,” an official said.
A panel consisting of Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Road Minister Oscar Fernandes unanimously agreed that the toll on expressways would be 25 per cent higher than that of highways. A committee was formed by the Centre earlier this month to end the impasse between the Planning Commission and the Road Ministry. “We did not want to hold up projects, including the Supreme Court mandated Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) around Delhi,” an official said.
“The committee has so far agreed to the 1.25 formula. They have asked MoRTH to apply this revised rate on the three upcoming expressway projects (Eastern Peripheral, Mumbai-Vadodara and Delhi-Meerut) to study and draw estimates if these would be viable at these rates or might still need a higher annual revision compared to the highway toll, which are hiked by three per cent annually,” official said.
“The markets have been going through a rough patch and there is no equity. There are no lenders for roads and the returns are slow,” official added. The official further said, “The Government has been trying to get the infrastructure projects moving but the economic slowdown has taken a huge toll on this sector. This decision will go down well with the developers as will also be good for the ministry.”
The Roads Ministry has now agreed that the 192 km long Eastern Peripheral Expressway, mandated by the Supreme Court in 2005 to divert the non-Delhi bound traffic from entering the bounds of the Capital, would be feasible at 1.25 times the toll charged on highways. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is presently studying and estimating the toll viability for all three projects.
The Eastern Peripheral Expressway project has been held up for years, because of the deadlock between the Planning Commission, who wanted higher toll rates while, MoRTH wanted the toll charge to be at par with the highways. When bids were called in 2012-13, there was very poor response from the private players, as they also did not agree with the current toll policy and wanted it increased.