Payback developers for toll loss: NHAI to states

NEW DELHI: State governments or district collectors issuing arbitrary orders to stop toll collection or exemption to any category of vehicles on NH stretches may have to pay through their nose. To check such agencies and officials for "fiddling" with the toll policy, the NHAI has asked the Maharashtra and Kerala governments to pay the amount highway managers have lost due to such orders.

NHAI officials said Maharashtra has been asked to pay Rs 106 crore while Kerala owes Rs 36.8 crore to the authority so that it can compensate the companies that are managing the two highway stretches. In the case of Kerala, the state road transport corporation, KSRTC, has also been asked to pay Rs 33.56 crore.

The two stretches are the Pimpangaon-Nasik-Gande stretch in Maharashtra and the Thrissur-Edappally stretch in Kerala. "We have asked the Maharashtra government to recover the amount from the collector who had ordered the toll exemption. We don't want anyone to play with the toll discipline since such cases de-motivate private investment. States have signed umbrella agreements for smooth operation of such stretches," NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra told TOI.

Addressing a conclave organised by industry body FICCI on Tuesday, Chandra said the NHAI has indicated to the states that in case they fail to pay the amount, the authority will approach the road transport ministry for compensation from the central road fund (CRF), which is allocated to states. However, on the issue of languishing highway projects, the NHAI chief cited "gross managerial inefficiency" of private concessionaires as the main reason behind the mess.