.: [Vijay Kudal] [VijayKudal] What are the roots of toll rage?

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What are the roots of toll rage?

Lack of transparency in toll charges and cumulative collection is the main cause of unrest

There's a different kind of road rage in Maharashtra.No,it's not just rude motorists or dangerous drivers who honk and raise blood pressure. That's always a given on the congested roads of Mumbai or Pune. The new road rage is focused on toll booths.

In Kolhapur city, more than six toll booths were vandalised or burnt down by political activists. These were criminal acts of arson, but seemed to have support of thousands of people of the city. The violence went on for more than a week, and was backed by several political parties.

Their demand was to stop toll collection altogether. In Thane, too, we had similar incidents of toll booth destruction. A few months ago, there was a firing incident at the Khed Shivapur toll plaza. In Goa, the son of a former Maharashtra chief minister was arrested for smashing a toll booth and attacking the operator. Presumably he was upset at having been asked to pay the toll.

There's definitely an epidemic of toll rage, and there's no end in sight. If you enter Mumbai city from Dahisar, Airoli, Vashi or Mulund you have to snake through narrow tolll anes and long waiting lines, and the resultant traffic jam is enough to get your blood boiling. This happens every day, so may be motorists have resigned themselves.

The toll rage manifesting in destruction of booths is caused by the suspicion of toll scam. Three years ago, the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena proclaimed that as per their study, toll operators were fleecing motorists, because they had more than recovered their costs. Moreover, the road maintenance was also very poor. Hence they demanded that toll booths be removed and collection stopped.

For instance, as per MNS data, the annual toll collection on the Mumbai-Pune expressway was about Rs 640 crore. Since its commencement in 2004,in about eight years the total toll collection would be 500 per cent of the cost of building that highway.That was the basis of their demand,and public interest litigation for removal of tolls.This toll anger then spread to other highways and other political parties.

There is considerable opacity regarding toll collections. A study done in 2012 by researchers at Indiaspend .com found great discrepancy between data given by MSRDC website and through an RTI query. The website said that ThaneGhodbunderroadannualtollincomewas about Rs 9 crore, but an RTI query revealed that MSRDC earned Rs 176 crore till July 2012. Such a wide variation obviously needs an explanation.

There is also a discrepancy in the information given about the same highway by the toll operator and MSRDC. Thus, Thane-Bhiwandi highway costisRs104crore according to toll operator, but Rs 200 crore according to MSRDC. Whom do you believe?

Ever since Maharashtra aggressively adopted the Build-Own-Transfer (BOT) model, it has created this toll monster. The BOT is a model to involve private contractors who build road with their own cost, and earn the right to charge a toll for 15 to 20 years to recover their cost. This is necessary because the government has no money.

But since the toll system is not transparent it gives rise to worst kind of suspicions. Perhaps the best way is to keep a running display at all stations, giving information about cost incurred, and cumulative tolls collected till that day.

After several toll debacles, the new four-lane roads connecting Kalyan, Badlapur, Karjat and Murbad are being constructed without toll financing. This is called the new "Badlapur pattern". We will, however, need to continue using BOT since the government has a huge debt. Toll rage can indeed be reduced with total transparency and consistency about the policy.