The government seeks to bring in efficiency not only in infrastructure development but also in collection of user fee for the infrastructure facilities so created. In a recent decision, road transport and highways ministry has decided to award the work of collecting fees on public-funded toll plazas to private players. Road and highway development projects are already being given to the private sector.
The decision follows a successful trial of the idea on some stretches of national highways. The government had given the task of collecting fees to private firms on 11 stretches in 2005-06. During the experiment, it experienced that the revenue was 23% higher in the case of nine stretches, while on two stretches the earning was lower than the benchmark.
At present, toll is collected by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) through departmental method, in which the collected sum goes to the government and collecting agencies get fixed fees only. But many anomalies have been noticed in the present system, including collection of lower amount from users than what is due to them. ?The ministry expects a better collection by awarding the collection work through open competitive bidding,? a senior official in NHAI said. The authority collected nearly Rs 2,000 crore in 2009-10, 14% higher than the previous year. NHAI is collecting toll charges through this method at 104 locations in the country.
According to the qualification criteria for open competitive bidding method prepared by NHAI, a firm needs to have a networth of at least one-third of the estimated toll collection in order to bid for the project. If the firm wants to bid for another toll collection project, the networth requirement will get increased by 10%. The open competitive bidding system will be used in states other than North East, Jammu & Kashmir, where these projects are unlikely to get interest from private players due to militancy and Naxal problems. In North East and J&K, the existing system of toll collection will continue, the official said.
