Finally the Supreme Court of India stands by the commuters who have to encounter highways dotted with potholes in many parts of India. The experience of travelling on a bad highway is gravely painful. The bench of Justices T S Thakur and Kurian Joseph, while hearing a case of a poorly maintained 26-km Raipur-Durg stretch on NH-53 said, "no toll for bad roads". The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and concessionaires cannot collect toll from commuters if the road is in bad shape.
Road users have had a long-standing grouse that they were fleeced by concessionaires who charged hefty toll on stretches of dilapidated national highways. They also believed that private contractors were enriching themselves while the NHAI looked the other way.
"General public should not be made to suffer on both counts - bad roads and hefty toll," the bench said while ordering the concessionaire to refund Rs 11 crore it had collected as toll to the central government, which had taken over the road from the private party in March.
The central government wanted defended saying, it had acted reasonably by reducing the toll by 60% since taking over the highway for repair work. But the court refused to allow commuters to pay any charges when the condition of the 26-km stretch was poor.
However, the Centre pleaded that the road is motorable in quite some parts. The bench then approved the collection of toll at 40% of the earlier rate and directed that the new toll would be 20% of the earlier fee.
Lal Manohar Pandey had filed a petition in Chhattisgarh High Court complaining against the pot-holed 26-km Raipur-Durg stretch, on which the concessionaire extracted hefty toll. The HC order was challenged in the SC by the private contractor.
The ministry of road transport had collaborated with DSC Ventures Pvt Ltd on May 8, 2003 for construction, operation and maintenance of Raipur-Durg section of NH-53 on a build, operate and transfer basis.
(Image: VM Win)
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