Bombay High Court asks CAG to probe irregularities in toll collection on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India CAG to look into allegations of irregularities in toll collection on the MumbaiPune ExpresswayA bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni directed the CAG to audit accounts of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation MSRDC and to submit an affidavit on its findings within two weeksThe bench also directed the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit responding to the allegations within two weeksThe bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by four activists alleging misdeclaration of toll and irregularities in awarding of toll contracts for the Mumbai Pune ExpresswayThe plea sought that the toll collected on the Expressway from August 2019 onwards be declared illegalAdvocate Praveen Wategaonkar one of the petitioners in the case had on Wednesday told the High Court that the Motor Vehicle Tax Act allowed the state government to recover capital outlay plus toll collection expensesToll collection rights for a 15year period from August 2004 to August 10 2019 were awarded for an upfront payment of Rs 918 crore to a private firm with an expected revenue of Rs 4330 croreHowever the actual revenue by July 31 2019 was Rs 6773 crore and the excess revenue of Rs 2443 had been retained by the firm it was statedMeanwhile the state government had decided to continue collecting toll on the Expressway till 2030 in the name of recovering project costs Wategaonkar had said adding that the toll collected after August 2019 was illegalThe MSRDC had told the court that the state had been unable to recover the project costs mainly because citizens often evaded paying toll on the ExpresswayThe court had however said that the MSRDCs submission was unbelievableOn Thursday senior advocate Girish Godbole the amicus curiae appointed by the court to assist it in the matter said there was some substance in the allegations of underreporting and misdeclaration of toll revenue as alleged in the pleaThe court then sought the CAGs assistance in the matter citing that the latter was an expert body that could shed some light on the issues raised in the pleaIt is likely to hear the matter further on April 21This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever