Buoyed by her success in stopping toll collection at the Tadali toll gate on the Chandrapur-Nagpur road after her agitation, MLC Shobhatai Fadnavis opposed toll collection near Borkhedi village on National Highway Number 7 today, terming it "illegal and unwarranted".
Explaining the issue in detail, Shobhatai said that a portion of the four-lane NH-7 on Nagpur-Jam-Hinganghat was constructed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) between 1999 and 2002 and the Chandrapur-Nagpur road joins the NH-7 at Jam.
"As rules, the contractor who constructed the highway is authorised to collect a maintenance cost at Rs 1 crore per kilometre for national highways and Rs 50 lakh per km for state highways, once in five years. Exorbitant toll has been levied for only 21.60 km on NH-7 near Borkhedi village," Shobhatai said.
"If one goes by rules, the contractor, Oriental Nagpur Bypass Construction Pvt Ltd has collected toll since 2012, for a portion of the road which he has not constructed at all. Even if he is permitted to collect it on some other grounds, he should be authorised to collect Rs 21.60 crore for a period of five years against its maintenance only," Shobhatai said.
However, according to the contractor's official records, Rs 35 lakh per day or Rs 10 crore per month, which is equivalent to an astounding amount of Rs 120 crore, is being collected through this controversial toll booth, that too for a patch of road which has not been constructed by the contractor at all, she said.
"Therefore, the toll booth in question is illegal and we would initiate every step including agitations to ensure that it is shut down. The contractor may shift this toll booth to a suitable site on the actual bypass roads to Jabalpur and Bhandara, on the outskirts of Nagpur," the MLC said.
