Toll on Mumbai-Pune e-way, highway to stay beyond 2019
The toll on Mumbai-Pune expressway and the national highway (NH4) between Mumbai and Pune will be levied even beyond 2019.
While toll payment was expected to wind up five years from now but the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has initiated the process to select a private entrepreneur to carry out operation and maintenance works after 2019.
The rights for toll collection on the 94km expressway and the highway from August 2019 onwards will be allocated to the private entrepreneur. Ministry of road transport and highways will fix the toll rates.
Apart from the operation and maintenance of the expressway, additional works such as construction of service roads, subways and overbridges, and widening have been planned on the highway stretch at a cost of around Rs 285 crore. The works will be implemented on design-build-finance-operate-transfer basis.
The corporation had invited offers for pre-qualification of entrepreneurs for the project. The final selection would be through competitive bidding.
Without divulging any details on the project, the senior officials of the MSRDC, both in Mumbai and Pune hinted at the government’s plan to implement additional works, both on the expressway and the highway, for which the period of toll collection would be extended beyond 2019. It is still not known that whether an alternative route in the ghat section is among the additional works.
In 2004, the expressway was privatized. The Ideal Road Builders (IRB) won the bid to operate and maintain the roads for 15 years. IRB had then quoted Rs 2,060 crore for the project.
Source: The Times of India
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