Thursday, Apr 25, 2024 | Last Update : 02:21 PM IST
MSRDC doing job of private firm
A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that though a private company was entrusted the task of collecting toll and spending the same on maintenance of flyovers in the city, it is the state th
A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that though a private company was entrusted the task of collecting toll and spending the same on maintenance of flyovers in the city, it is the state that has been doing maintaining flyovers.
On the contrary, it was the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) that ended up forking out Rs 119 crore on the flyovers.
The MSRDC had appointed the Mumbai Entry Point (MEP) Infrastructure Private Limited in 2010-11 to collect tolls at the five entry points of the city and use the money collected from it to maintain 31 flyovers in the city and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The five entry points in the city are Vashi tollbooth, Mulund tollbooth on the Eastern Express Highway, Dahisar tollbooth, Airoli tollbooth and Mulund tollbooth on the LBS Marg.
The MEP Infrastructure Pvt Ltd was awarded the contract for toll collection, authorising collection up to November 2026 for Rs 2,242.35 crore.
The money collected from the toll is used for maintaining of roads and the flyovers. The toll is also collected to retain the amount equal or more than the actual amount spent on the construction of the roads and flyovers.
The MSRDC had spent Rs 1,058 crore for construction of these 31 flyovers, which includes the one at Chedda Nagar in Chembur, CST-Kurla flyover, Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), Airoli flyover in Navi Mumbai, Kharghar flyover and Chembur-Mankhurd Link Road.
RTI activist Anil Galgali had also sought information about the toll collected in the past five years by MEP and also the total number of vehicles crossing the five entry points in the past five years to which the MSRDC did not have adequate information.
Mr Galgali has been consistently alleging that there is a major scam in collection of toll by the MSRDC.
However, senior MSRDC officials have refused to comment on the issue. D.A. Salunke, chief engineer of toll monitoring unit, MSRDC, said that the MSRDC would provide all the toll collection records on real-time basis once the real-time toll collection data is implemented.
