In a major relief to commuters, the state government has announced that small vehicles, state transport (ST) as well as municipal buses will be exempted from paying the toll on all roads that will be
In a major relief to commuters, the state government has announced that small vehicles, state transport (ST) as well as municipal buses will be exempted from paying the toll on all roads that will be built by the state in future.
Chandrakant Patil, PWD (public undertaking) minister informed the state Legislative Council that the government’s policy is to make all state roads toll-free. Accordingly, small vehicles, ST and municipal buses have been exempted from the toll. The policy will continue on all future roads to be built by PWD and MSRDC, he added.
He was replying to demands raised by council members to waive off toll on state roads. Mr Patil said, “While the state government is positive about removing toll on state roads, it cannot do so on national highways, as they belong to the Centre. We are holding talks with the Centre in an attempt to give toll relief on national highways too.”
The Opposition members also criticised the state government for failing to fulfil its promise of making Mumbai entry points and Mumbai-Pune Expressway toll free.
Raising the issue in the Council, Congress MLC Sanjay Dutt said that the government had been dilly-dallying on the issue. “The committee appointed by the government to study the issue has already been given four extensions. It shows time-delaying tactics of the government.”
Replying to him, MSRDC minister Eknath Shinde said that state government would decide on the issue after receiving the report from the committee before April 30.
“There are several issues like clauses like no buy back, termination in the previous agreements, which need to be studied in detail before taking final decision. If the decision is taken in haphazard manner, there is a possibility of contractors moving to court, which may hit the state government adversely,” he said.
He further added, “We have given toll exemption to small vehicles on 53 toll nakas in the state, whereas 12 nakas have been shut completely.”
