Business
Standard: Mumbai: Sunday, November 18, 2012.
Maharashtra
was one of the first states in India to actively involve the private sector in
infrastructure projects. But the state has not displayed the same ingenuity in
providing information and insight on the structure of these public-private
partnerships or the financials that govern them.
IndiaSpend
filed four rounds of Right to Information (RTI) petitions through the last 75
days but got just two responses. Information was sought on the amount of toll
collected on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Pune-Nashik highway, the
Thane-Ghodbunder road and Thane-Bhiwandi road. Responses were received only for
the last two queries. The answers actually beg more questions, show the larger
opacity around which such transactions are executed and highlight the need for
urgent reforms.
The state of
Maharashtra has a road network of 2,41,000 km. The state’s expenditure on roads
has increased from Rs 539 crore in 2005 to Rs 2,368 crore.
In 1996, the
state government decided to formulate a private-public-partnership (PPP) policy
to finance its Road Development Plan (1981–2001), which in turn called for
about Rs 26,000 crore of investments. The policy also led to the creation of
the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to undertake
development of roads and related infrastructure, mostly with private
participation.
The projects
are undertaken by MSRDC under the ‘build, operate and transfer’ (BOT) basis. In
financing BOT projects, developers are allowed to recover investments by
collecting toll over a concession period, generally 30 years.
MSRDC, from
its date of inception (July 9, 1996), has completed 18 projects, with an
estimated cost (final cost, not necessarily the cost when the project was kicked
off) of Rs 7,187 crore and actual expenditure of Rs 6,822 crore. According to
the Maharashtra Economic Survey, till September 30, 2011, MSRDC’s total toll
income from partially and fully completed projects was Rs 5,680.15 crore.
MSRDC has
completed some big projects, including the iconic Bandra–Worli sea link, the
Mumbai-Pune expressway and the Pune–Nashik expressway.
Now, to
facilitate PPP projects, the state government has amended the Bombay Motor
Vehicles Tax Act so that entrepreneurs/contractors could collect toll under the
BOT agreement. Toll rates vary for different vehicles and are fixed for three
years, with a clause permitting an increase of six per cent a year, after three
years.
Separate toll
rates for projects of up to Rs 20 crore and between Rs 20-75 crore have been
finalised by the government. Toll rates for projects worth more than Rs 75
crore are fixed separately.
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