TOLL PLAZAS NEED TO GO

S.K. Khosla

Road transport is the backbone for any economy. Best kind of road network intensifies and boosts the economic development resulting in increased employment opportunities. But contrary to this, the governments in India seem to have abdicated their responsibilities by assigning the task of road building to private parties.

In the politics of tolls, it has been argued that governments either union or states can not afford to build highways without any help from private sector because of financial constraints. Further, argument extended is that the same system is being followed even in US and China. There are many issues linked to these flawed arguments. In the following paragraphs I have examined the intricacies involved in the toll system.

Concept of tolls in India is as old as the introduction of economic reforms in 1991. However, robust privatisation measures with respect to roads picked up the momentum under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) system almost since 1995. Currently, there are two models of private projects of roads and bridges which are in vogue i.e. Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) route where the contractor builds the road and recovers his money through toll and secondly, the system wherein State funds the road and bridges construction and then appoints a contractor to recover toll. For all practical reasons, the former is more in use.  Though, there are no exact estimates related to the Public Private Partnership in road construction and maintenance, yet one estimate calculated that during 2012-13, for 14,000 KMs Rs. 9,222 crore were recovered by the contractors. Apart from the extraction  of huge sum of money, another big issue is the standing of commuters in queues wherein they spend not only their time rather lakhs of kilolitres  of fuel also. Million dollar question is if there is any viable alternative than the present PPP model?

A glimpse of the details of PPP projects bring to light the fact how public is fleeced by exorbitant and unjustified tolls on one hand and the money generated through these tolls being siphoned off instead of being used for road maintenance on the other. It can not be ruled out that a big nexus consisting of politicians, contractors and the bureaucrats is ruling the roost across the nation.  In addition to it,  there is no regulatory authority to monitor the infirmities experienced in the functioning of the tolls

It would not be out of place to mention here, anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare led an agitation against road tolls in 2011 especially in the state of Maharashtra.  He demanded the scrapping of at least 20 of the State’s 174 toll booths. But all his efforts were suppressed  either brutally or politically and  the system is  going on uninterrupted.

Lack of monitoring by the government on tolling agencies or checks with respect to how many vehicles have passed through the toll has resulted into vibrant possibilities of manipulation.  Besides, there are instances where the toll operators continued to recover money from road users even though the recovery period had lapsed. In 2006, CAG in its report of 2004-05, indicated how the high profile Mumbai-Pune Expressway project that was built by the Mahrashtra State Road Transport Corporation went into the hands of Ideal Road Builders a private body for toll collection. Besides, in 2004, the company received the toll collection contract for a fee of Rs. 918 crore that was too low keeping into consideration the fact that even if only 60 per cent of the toll revenue was considered, reserve price would have amounted to Rs. 2,236 crore. It becomes crystal clear from the fact that toll contracts are rigged by the government to allow only a monopolistic cartel of contractors to make the cut.

It is beyond understanding why the governments have abdicated its responsibility towards public works department, when these works can easily be executed by the government itself, as the governments have the requisite manpower, expertise and infrastructure and  why contractors are being brought into the scene?. So far  as the money is concerned, contractors who used to build these roads and bridges also do not have their own money.  They normally manage loan either from the nationalised banks or some other private financial institutions.  The money taken by the contractors from the nationalised banks is hard earned money of tax-payers. This is the vicious money spending circle. Public deposits its money with the banks for petty interest rate to make use especially during rainy days. But this money instead of being invested in such projects that create employment is advanced into the hands of contractors in connivance with politicians and bureaucrats.  It fortifies the chances of increasing non-performing assets on one hand and reduced employment opportunities on the other.. In fact, it is the duty of the government to provide these basic necessities of roads and bridges to the taxpayers who pay every penny of tax levied by the government from time to time. In case of paucity of finances, same can be arranged through internal and external sources like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank where governments manage to arrange loans for other major projects.  

It is again beyond understanding of a common man why the government (whether central or state) is keen to hand over the road building projects to private individuals when the government itself maintain a pool of experts. In every state, in the case of National High Ways, (Central Government) there is a big PWD department headed by Chief Engineers, and down the line staff.  Above all, there is a Secretary level department to govern the entire work.  In many states there are roads and bridges corporations consisting of Board of Directors where specialists are there to help the government.  Thus where is the necessity to give these important works of roads and bridges to private contractors and burden the people to pay toll.

In case, the government owns its responsibility to construct these roads and bridges, there is absolutely no need of these heavy tolls to burden the people who are already reeling under skyrocketing prices. .  Further, what is required today is the formation of an urban traffic management centre to look after the issue of road engineering, designing and repairing.  Unfortunate truth revealed is that now, all Pro-capitalist political parties believe that the shortcut to a successful mobilisation is to coerce the government into cutting prices for consumers.

(Secretary,  Chetna Manch Chandigarh)