Till when people will pay toll on Mumbai-Pune expressway: Bombay High Court asks MSRDC

Bombay High Court.

How long will people pay toll on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Bombay High Court asked the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) on Wednesday.

"How many years will you collect toll. Have you not recovered the construction cost?" asked a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in 2020 by four activists to declare toll collection on the Expressway from August 2019 illegal, stated a report in The Times of India.

The PIL stated that the Motor Vehicle Tax Act, 1958 allows the government to recover capital outlay plus toll collection expenses. Toll collection rights for a 15-year period- - from August 2004 to August 10, 2019- - was awarded for an upfront payment of Rs 918 crore to Mhaiskar Infrastructure Pvt Ltd with expected revenue of Rs 4,330 crore. However, the actual revenue by July 31, 2019 was Rs 6,773 crore and excess revenue of Rs 2,443 was retained by Mhaiskar. Hence, the PIL claimed that the toll collected on the Expressway since August 10, 2019, is illegal.

MSRDC's advocate Prashant Chavan argued that under the Act, it has the right to levy toll to recover capital outlay, which includes construction cost plus expenditure towards expansion, maintenance and outstanding. He then said that the state corporation will continue to collect toll on the Expressway till 2030.

Advocate Pravin Wategaonkar, who is also one of the petitioners, pointed that "capital outlay is recovered".

The judges observed that there is a "larger issue" about people paying toll. "If you are travelling from Mumbai to Kolhapur you are paying a toll. How much money people are spending only on toll! Is it justified? It's the duty of the government to provide good roads," said Justice Kulkarni.

To the judges' query on how much toll amount is collected by the government, the MSRDC's advocate said that the money paid upfront by the contractor is spent on other road works. The judges wondered how long will people continue to pay the toll. "How long? That is the question," said Justice Kulkarni. "Whatever is being collected, is it commensurate with what is collected by way of taxes?" he added.

The judges granted the MSRDC time to file a detailed reply and posted the next hearing on March 10.