roko

CAN YOU BELEIVE THAT!!

POOR COMMUTERS CONTINUE TO SUFFER

NEW DELHI: The private operator of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway has currently no right to levy toll charges from users of the stretch. That's what a probe carried out by an arm of the corporate affairs ministry has concluded. The probe says the operator started collecting toll on the basis of a provisional certificate without providing for facilities vital for the safety and smooth flow of traffic.

The report has sought restraining the operator from charging toll from the users of the expressway until all shortcomings - as pointed out by the Central Road Research Institute in its June 2008 report - are completed.

Acting on the probe findings of the Director General of Investigation and Registration, sources said the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has sent a notice of inquiry to all stakeholders - NHAI, the private operator DS Constructions Ltd, departments concerned of the Delhi and Haryana governments ^ for deficient services which have been causing huge casualties besides inconvenience among users.

Arguing strongly in favour of a ban on toll collection, the report has graphically analysed accident rates that have gone up substantially ever since the expressway started. ``In 57 months between March 2003 and December 2007 on the said stretch, 119 persons lost their lives and 1,756 were injured. In the 14 months between January 2008 and March 2009 - after the expressway came up - more than 120 persons have lost lives and 100 have been injured,'' the report states.

The report also blasts the private operator and NHAI for alleged misrepresentation of facts while fixing toll charges and starting the carriageway before all required facilities were put in place.

``The volume of projected traffic on the expressway in the ensuing years was one of the factors for deciding the toll charges. Thus by submitting under-projected figures on volume of traffic, DSC Ltd has adopted a deceptive and unfair method which amounts to an unfair trade practice,'' the report says.

Mandeepa Joshi, spokesperson of the DSC Ltd, said her company had now obtained the completion certificate. However, she refused to comment on other issues like service lanes and footover bridges, saying these matters were sub-judice.

In June 2008, an average of 1,33,808 vehicles used the expressway daily at the Delhi-Gurgaon border. According to projections by the private operator, which were approved by NHAI and an independent project consultant, this was the targeted traffic flow in the year 2020. At another toll point in Khekri, the volume as of June 2008 was 48,693 - a figure projected to be achieved between 2016 and 2021.

The toll rates were set accordingly. Had the projections been closer to the actual figures, the toll rates would have been much lower and the concession period brought down substantially from the present 20 years, the report said.

``It is evident that NHAI has influenced the notified toll charges in a most deceptive manner resulting in undue gains to the private operator at the cost of public,'' the report says.

The absence of service lanes on certain stretches, which should have been in place before the expressway was opened, has created chaos and resulted in more accidents.

On the Gurgaon-Delhi stretch, between Rajoukri and Rao Tula Ram junction, there is no alternative for slow moving traffic and all of them spill over to the main carriageway, creating safety hazards.
The report holds the operator responsible for deficient services which were supposed to be completed within the prescribed 120 days. The incomplete services include service lanes, subways and footover bridges, fencing of the median for the carriageway etc.

The investigation has also blasted the independent consultant RITES-SHELADIA for issuing the temporary certificate without required facilities and termed it a ``deceptive and unfair method at the cost of the users of expressway''.