New toll policy on anvil: Baalu

New Delhi, July 21 (UNI) The government has finalised a new Toll Policy and its broad parameters, aimed at curbing malpractices and making it user-friendly, are under formulation, Road Transport and Highways Minister T R Baalu announced today.

Addressing a Conference of Chief Secretaries on 'Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Infrastructure', organised by the Planning Commission here, Mr Baalu said the government had decided to shift from manual to Electronic Toll Collection (ETC).

''The new system will not only remove the anomalies in the existing system but also prevent unnecessary delay in movement of vehicles,'' he said.

Mr Baalu, who chaired the session on highways at the conference, said weigh-in motion bridges were are being installed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for checking the cases of overloading.

The minister also disclosed that for real time traffic data collection, the Department of Road Transport and Highways would install 320 Automatic Traffic Counter-cum-Classifiers (ATCCs) in the first stage at certain stretches of National Highways. Gradually, this facility would be extended to the entire network of National Highways.

He said the technology for user fee collection must be upgraded at the earliest in a time-bound manner and the concepts like shadow tolling and congestion charging needed to be examined for adoption in urban environment.

''Regulatory mechanism and speedy dispute resolution mechanism need to be formulated early,'' Mr Baalu said, adding that non-compliance or default for the payment fee should be controlled through an effective enforcement mechanism.

Referring to the issue of public-private partnership (PPP) in infrastructure, he said lack of proper dissemination of project-related information and also of local and geographical issues was an important reason for very few global investors being aware of the project opportunities in India.

''Relatively, low size of projects and lack of appropriate tie-ups with Indian partners also appear to be major deterrents,'' he said, adding these issues required to be adequately addressed to encourage global investors.

In order to address the concerns of private investors on loss of revenue due to absence of any control on access, the Minister said more emphasis should be given on development of expressways with control on access, which would also provide the desired level of mobility for increased economic activity.

Mr Baalu informed that under the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP), the NHAI had awarded 78 contracts aggregating to a length of around 4,500 km at a cost of Rs.30,000 crores.

So far, 16 projects, having a total length of 902 km at a cost of Rs.5,242 crores, have been completed.

During the current fiscal, under the NHDP Phase-V (six-laning of National Highways), a length of 2,995 km at a cost of Rs.18,988 crores are to be awarded on the PPP basis.

Similarly, under the NHDP Phase-III (four/six-laning of National Highways), 3,278 km of roads at a cost of Rs.21,373 crores are to be awarded on the PPP basis.

Mr Baalu said in the Central sector, from the NHDP Phase-III onwards, implementation of road projects would be mainly through the PPP either on BOT (Toll) or on BOT (Annuity).

Only in exceptional cases, such as construction of strategic roads and roads in the North-East, projects would be awarded on EPC basis, he informed.

The Minister said the governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu had also adopted the PPP model for development of roads in their States.

Earlier, Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Singh made a presentation on the opportunities in the PPP in the road sector.

UNI