Gadkari talks about excessive toll tax, highway construction & delays

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Road and Transport Minister of India responded to the issue of excessive toll collection at News18 Chaupal on Monday. 

Why excessive toll charges are applied?

When asked why Rs 8,000 crore is being collected as toll tax when the cost of road construction was only Rs 1,900 crore, Gadkari replied that toll taxes are not collected in a day and various expenses need to be borne by the government both before toll collection and after it.

The Union Minister further elaborated, “If you buy a car or a house in cash, its price would be Rs 2.5 lakhs. If you take the same on loan for 10 years, then its price becomes Rs 5.5 to 6 lakhs. Interest has to be paid every month. Many times the work is done by taking loans."

Speaking on the issue of excessive toll collection on the Delhi-Jaipur NH-8 Highway, the Minister remarked, “The road was allotted by the UPA government in 2009. 9 banks were involved in this project. There were a lot of problems in building this road.”

He further added, “The contractors ran away. The banks filed court cases. Then new contractors came. We terminated the new contractors. The Delhi High Court gave a stay order. We made a new DPR on this road. There are encroachments on both sides of the road. We kept trying to ensure that if we have to construct a 6-lane road, the encroachments need to be removed. This time, due to rain, we faced more problems…"

Recently, in response to an RTI, it appeared that about Rs 8,000 crore has been collected from Manoharpur Toll Plaza on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway in Rajasthan, while the construction of this highway was priced at about Rs 1,900 crore.

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Gadkari explained that the construction of highways often faces multiple hurdles, including legal disputes, contractor issues, and weather problems. The Delhi-Jaipur project commenced under the UPA government in 2009 but encountered issues like contractor abscondment, legal battles with banks, and delays caused by land acquisition and environmental challenges.

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