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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Maharashtra on Friday announced the complete closure of 12 toll collection booths across the state from midnight of May 31. Also, cars, jeeps, light motor vehicles (LMVs) and buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation will be exempted from paying toll tax on other 53 toll booths from the same day.
However, the commuters travelling in and out of Mumbai city through five entry points and those using the Mumbai-Pune expressway will continue to pay toll tax till the government receives a report in this regard from a high level committee headed by the additional chief secretary (public works) by July 31.
Fadnavis said of the 12 toll booths 11 are operational on the roads developed by the state undertaking, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and one by the public works department.
As far as the 53 toll booths are concerned, 27 are developed by the Public Works Department and 25 by MSRDC. However, the chief minister did not specify whether the toll tax will be increased for heavy vehicles to compensate for the loss or it will be borne by the government. The government has also not made any provisions in the annual budget presented for 2015-16 to make for the revenue loss on account of the closure of toll booths and exemption of some vehicles.
The BJP, in the run up to the Assembly election last year, had promised a “Toll Free Maharashtra”. After assuming power on October 31 last year, the BJP clarified that the party never gave any assurance in this regard and said it had promised to close some toll booths where excess toll was collected. The government had also said certain vehicles would be exempted from paying toll tax in some booths.
Besides, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had alleged that the previous Congress-NCP government had entered into pro-contractor agreements without buyback provision. Those agreements benefitted the contractors while commuters were burdened with a high toll tax.
There are about 168 toll booths in the state. The Congress-NCP government, ahead of the Assembly election, had closed 44 of these. Incidentally, the Congress-NCP alliance government had proposed to bring in new toll policy exempting light motor vehicles but it failed to do so.
