Thanks to AB Vajpayee, the visionary PM of India & his Golden quadrilateral project, India finally has some decent highways (which India would never have but for Mr.ABV). The present Government though we all know is good for projects which look wonderful on paper & road connectivity (like other basic amenities) has been their last priority.
Had Mr.Vajpayee been the PM for a second term, India would have definitely seen the ambitious River Interlinking project materialize, which would to a great extent mitigate the acute water scarcity that we Indians suffer from. But we are not so fortunate.
My blog is not about roads, but about the hefty toll that is being levied on users. The so called "build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT)" system through which there is 'Private Public participation' in building & development of highways, looks suspicious from every angle, though I will be wrong to bracket all projects into this.
In the guise of infrastructure development, roads though built quite well, attract hefty tolls from users. And this goes on for years & years..even after the builder has recovered his investment. Its profiteering at its worst.
I am tempted to quote an example of the Bangalore- Tumkur national highway (on NH 4). The developer has been collecting toll since almost 2004... this road is ultra busy since it is the trunk route connecting Chennai & Mumbai. Heavy vehicles including Buses & Trucks move in thousands every day,24 x 7, not to mention the countless cars, mini trucks & other private vehicles. The money collected till now would have crossed countless of crores, considering the density of traffic movement... but what next? Should the common man continue to pay for this ? & how long?
I thought that our governments collect & impose heavy taxes on the average Indian like service tax, Income tax, VAT, infra cess, beggar cess.... & so on, only to give us basic infrastructure. Lets for a moment accept the BOOT system, but is there a scientific reasoning for the duration & quantum of money made?
Toll collection is an organized mafia. I wish to mention of an incident which I came across recently at a toll plaza near Satara in MH (quite close to the hometown of Anna Hazare). I was travelling by a KSRTC Volvo bus to Shirdi from Bangalore. The bus crossed several toll plazas ever since it originated from Bangalore. Near Satara (during midnight) I could not sleep & peeped out at a toll plaza (where our bus had stopped for long), which had a serpentine queue of vehicles, mostly trucks & buses. There was an MSRTC bus next to the gate on which our bus had stopped & a toll collector was manning an uncovered gate, with an automatic billing machine.
The MSRTC driver handed over a 100 Rupee note to the collector & pleaded him not to issue a receipt, instead, requested him for a change of Rs.80, which the collector promptly did. I was told by a co passenger that this is a routine affair. The toll collector looked like a big official with some exotic clothing in the thick of mid night.. thanks to the corrupt ways of making money. I was convinced that this sort of corruption can never be erased from our nation.
What I want to point out is that such organised mafias exist almost every where, depriving the governments of millions of rupees revenue... this unholy nexus to loot the nation is not acceptable.
We have a NHAI, which is blindfolded. There is a definite nexus between officials & developers to pocket this easy money. No CBI or Lokayukta investigates these hidden crimes.
In the end, as ever, its the common folk like you & me who suffer & continue to suffer... silently.
A revolutionary project has turned into a money spinning mafia.. How can this nation develop? We are leaving bad footprints to our next generations.
lets raise our voices against this dishonest toll collection system.
I hope you readers at least partly agree with me! Jai Hind!
