Mumbai: Aaditya Thackeray, an MLA of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), has alleged irregularities in toll collection by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) Ltd at Mulund and Dahisar booths which fall on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) and Western Express Highway (WEH), respectively.
The booths are two of five entry points into Mumbai, the other being Vashi, Airoli and Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg.
In a letter written Sunday to municipal commissioner-administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal of Mumbai’s civic body Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Thackeray demanded that the toll plazas at Mumbai’s five entry points be scrapped. ThePrint has accessed the letter.
He pointed out that the Maharashtra government had transferred the maintenance of WEH and EEH — Mumbai’s key arterial roads — to the BMC in November 2022, while the MSRDC was getting the toll from these roads.
“The toll money being collected is going to the MSRDC coffers, while the BMC maintains the roads,” he wrote, adding “why should Mumbaikars pay toll now to the MSRDC when the maintenance of the WEH and EEH is under BMC which already charges us with a ‘street tax’, among many others”.
He highlighted that Mumbaikars were “being unfairly charged twice” for the “highways and bridges that they will now pay for through BMC taxes” and “which are so badly maintained”.
At a press conference Monday, Thackeray had specifically called for scrapping of the Mulund and Dahisar booths on the EEH and WEH.
In his letter, he also pointed out that revenue from advertisement hoardings along the WEH and EEH “apparently goes to the MSRDC even today, after the handover” when “it should actually go directly to the BMC”.
“All the money is going to the state government and the MSRDC. The government should come up with a one-time settlement in the interest of citizens. If they don’t do it then it’s clear they are working for contractors,” Thackeray said at the press conference, adding that if the Shiv Sena (UBT) came to power, it would stop toll collections across Mumbai.
In 2010, the Maharashtra government had given the contract to collect toll at Mumbai’s five entry points to the private company MEP Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.
MEP states on its website that it was given a contract for “maintenance of, and collection of toll at, the five Mumbai entry points along with 27 flyovers and certain allied structures on the Sion-Panvel Highway, the Western Express Highway corridor, the Eastern Express Highway corridor, the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg corridor and the Airoli Bridge corridor”.
Responding to Thackeray’s allegations, Radheshyam Mopalwar, vice-chairman of MSRDC, told ThePrint that the toll collected at Mulund and Dahisar booths was never meant for maintaining the EEH and WEH highways but was for operating and maintaining 55 flyovers built across Mumbai by the MSRDC.
“This toll is according to the contract for 55 flyovers in Mumbai and not about EEH or WEH,” he said.
“Toll collection is for building and operation and maintenance costs for flyovers that were built in the late 1990s and early 2000s,” he asserted, adding that “the contract with MEP Infrastructure Pvt Ltd is till the end of 2026”.
The demand to scrap toll collection across Mumbai has also been put forth by Pravin Wategaonkar, lawyer and activist, who has, over the past decade, filed several toll-related public interest litigation (PILs) in the Bombay High Court.
“The toll collection at Mumbai entry points and on Mumbai-Pune Expressway is a fraud played on the people,” he told ThePrint.
Aaditya Thackeray’s demand to scrap the toll booths has also sparked a political war with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which has campaigned against toll booths across the state in the past, show media reports.
It has also brought back focus on the Mumbai entry point toll contract which had stoked controversy in 2010, when it was awarded to MEP.
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Controversial contract
The MSRDC had reportedly constructed flyovers in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 1,065.25 crore, excluding interest. The construction was a build-operate-transfer project, the cost for which was to be recovered by charging toll, advertising and levying a cess on petrol and diesel.
In 2010, the corporation floated a fixed tender of Rs 2,100 crore to recover the cost of the flyover project as well as securitise toll collection (in which the government gets money upfront to fund other infrastructure projects) at the five entry points.
The MSRDC finally gave the contract to MEP for 16 years from November 2010 to November 2026, while other bidders, some of whom had quoted a lesser period for recovery, were disqualified on technical grounds, said media reports.
The state finance department reportedly raised concerns about the contract and it was pointed out that the MSRDC had already recovered the flyover project cost over the years.
The MSRDC had been collecting toll at the five entry points from 1999-2000 through private contractors.
In 2016, a CAG report stated that the MSRDC had already recovered the cost of the flyovers it had constructed across Mumbai.
Right to Information (RTI) activist Anil Galgali, who had sought data on toll collection at Mumbai’s entry points in 2016, told ThePrint that according to the information obtained, the MSRDC had spent around Rs 1,000 crore on various flyovers across the city.
Galgali said he had written to Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and both deputy CMs requesting them to make Mumbai toll-free after 2026.
“Many flyovers were constructed prior to 2000 at the cost of the state exchequer, for which toll is still being collected. Also, private entities like MEP Infrastructure are being given an opportunity to earn huge profits, which is surprising because now EEH and WEH are being maintained by the BMC,” he said.
In March this year, Maharashtra announced that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) would get the right to collect toll from 2027 onwards, after MEP’s contract gets over. The MMRDA is chaired by CM Shinde.
Toll booth politics
While the Shiv Sena (UBT) is highlighting the issue of toll collection, the MNS, too, has taken up the matter several times.
Between 2012 and 2014, the party had highlighted the issue of alleged corruption and lack of transparency in road toll contracts. Its campaign subsequently even led to over 60 toll plazas being shut across Maharashtra.
Last month, the MNS once again tried to revive the toll issue when party workers allegedly vandalised a toll booth on the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway after Amit Thackeray, son of party chief Raj Thackeray, was stopped there.
A day after Aaditya Thackeray raised the toll booth issue, MNS leader Ameya Khopkar Tuesday took to social media to slam the Shiv Sena (UBT), led by former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
“Under the leadership of Raj Thackeray, 65 toll booths across the state were shut down. We don’t just speak, we act. Why did you not demand to shut the toll booths when Uddhav Thackeray was the CM? Why give empty promises? People are now tired of the empty talks. If you have the guts, do what we did,” he wrote in Marathi.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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