As the issue of toll collection has witnessed violence in Kolhapur and political activists have called for a bandh, Pune-based activists have raised questions on the calculation of the toll charges.
The activists have already moved Bombay High Court against collection of toll charges claiming that toll collected at various toll plazas are much more than what the toll authorities should be charging.
City-based RTI activist Sanjay Shirodkar in his petitions claimed that the formula specified by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) regarding the calculations of toll charges is not being followed.
Speaking to dna, Sanjay Shirodkar said, “As per the central government’s resolution, the toll should be calculated as the base fee multiplied by wholesale price index of current financial year divided by the wholesale price index of 1997. According to this formula, toll charges at Pune- Mumbai stretch of national highway number 4 should be Rs53 but the commuters have to pay Rs87 as toll charges.”
The activist has challenged the toll collection of the Mumbai- Pune expressway in one of his petitions filed in the Bombay high court. He said, “There is a standard set that if more than one lakh passenger car units (PCU) are passing through any highway in a day from any highway, the toll charges of that highway should not be increased. It actually states that the highway has enough volume of vehicles from which the toll can be recovered and there is no need to increase toll charges further,” Shirodkar said.
Considering this as standard, we calculated the number of vehicles in the area and found that on July 1, 2012, the number of vehicles passing through the toll plazas on the expressway were 1,18,469 and on next day it was 1,14,518 which means that the number of vehicles have already crossed the one lakh mark and there should not be any increase in the toll charges on the expressway.”
Another Pune-based activist Vijay Kumbhar has already filed an RTI seeking information about the toll charges and the collection of toll at various booths in the state.
Kumbhar said, “It is totally unjust to charge toll in such a manner when citizens are already paying various taxes. There is no public consultation before imposing toll charges on people as a result of which, we are witnessing such a violent reaction from Kolhapur residents and this is going to replicate in other cities as well. Considering such injustice, we have decided to file a petition in the court once we get full information on toll collection.”
