The Times of India:Friday, January 13, 2012.
JAIPUR/BIKANER: The state government's move to charge tolls on eight national highways passing through Bikaner, Nagaur, Churu, Sriganganagar and Jodhpur has met with strong opposition from the public. The final agreement for developing these highways on PPP model and then charging tolls are to be signed in January.
According to RTI activist Manoj K Kamra, who has been accessing documents pertaining to traffic surveys of these roads before they can be developed on a PPP model, "The minimum criteria for developing any stretch of road on PPP model and thereafter charging toll is that traffic on these roads should be more than 10,000 Passenger Car Units (PCU). Incidentally, a survey by the National Highways Authority of India has come up with figures of more than 10,000 PSUs on all these roads when in reality there is hardly any traffic on them."
The national highways that are to be developed include NH-11, 15, 65 and 89. On NH 15, two stretches of 80.5 km and 172 km between Suratgarh & Sriganganagar and Bikaner & Suratgarh respectively are to be made two-lane with paved shoulders. A similar development will be done on two stretches on NH-65 of 128 km and 171 km between Nagaur-Jodhpur and Fatehpur-Pali respectively while a stretch of 75.5 km between Jodhpur-Pali on this road is to be made four-lane.
On NH-11, 200.481 km between Sikar and Bikaner is also be developed with paved shoulders. A similar structure is scheduled on NH-89 between Ajmer-Nagaur and Nagaur-Bikaner. Kamra has been approaching several offices in New Delhi for getting the real traffic on these roads but has been unsuccessful so far. "I have written to all authorities for examining the actual toll traffic volume of PPP roads of Rajasthan under NHDP-IV but there has been no answer. I feel there is no necessity for charging tolls on these roads and unduly burdening people of five districts for the next 20 years," he said.
Kamra has alleged that the traffic data has been inflated 3 to 4 times for crossing the 10,000-PCU mark as most of these two-lane NH roads are empty. "This is a ploy of the PWD and I have appealed to the authorities to stop the agreement which is to be signed sometime in January. Even the rules of consultancy have been amended to keep all government officials out of liability even in case of an inflated traffic survey," he said.
An RTI application filed at the PWD office in Bikaner for actual traffic by him has also not been replied to. "But the actual traffic can be judged from my video clips on youtube for NH-11 portions which can never exceed 5,000 PCU per day. Also, in western Rajasthan, there is scarce vehicle density and therefore it does not justify paved shoulder of 2-lane roads just for toll," he said.
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