Starting Tuesday, no toll for small vehicles at Mulund, Airoli and LBS Marg plazas till Sep 23

To reduce the traffic jam at the three Mumbai Entry Point toll plazas as a result of the ongoing Mumbra bypass works, the state government has announced waiver of the toll tax at Mulund, Airoli and LBS Marg (Mulund) plazas for small vehicles (light motor vehicles) such as cars for one month. The toll waiver will burden the state exchequer with Rs 11 crore as the government will have to compensate the concessionaire for the loss of toll collection.

The spillover traffic of the ongoing repair and renovation work of the bypass has resulted in long queues of vehicles at the three toll plazas on the roads leading to Thane. The time taken up for the collection of the toll has been attributed as a major reason for the jams. The construction work has led to congestion of the vehicles coming from Navi Mumbai using the Airoli-Mulund road to Nashik and Ahmedabad. This has resulted in jams at the Airoli and Mulund toll plazas. To reduce the congestion, the state government has announced the waiver for the next 34 days beginning from Tuesday.

Public works department (public undertaking) minister Eknath Shinde said that the construction work on the bypass will be completed by September 10. “The waiver will be extended for 13 more days (after September 10) to facilitate Ganesh devotees going to their native places in Konkan using the toll plazas. We have also directed the authorities to prepare proposal for the elevated corridor for double-decker toll nakas to reduce the traffic jams at the Mulund toll plaza,” he said. The decisions were taken in a meeting at Mantralaya on Monday.

The monthly collection of the toll at Airoli and Mulund is Rs 5.5 crore and Rs 4 crore from 11.04 lakh and 8 lakh small vehicles respectively. The monthly collection at the LBS Marg toll is Rs95 lakh from 1.5 lakh vehicles.

“The contractor has demanded for the recovery of the losses as small vehicles account for 70% of the total vehicular traffic passing through these plazas. This is expected to burden the exchequer with about Rs 11 crore,” said an official from the PWD.

The concessionaire will also be compensated for the six weeks of the loss after the state government initially decided to collect toll at only one of the two plazas -- Airoli or Mulund -- to reduce the traffic, he said. “However, we have found that the contractor had been collecting toll at both the plazas despite the order issued on July 5 due to lack of awareness. The issue was discussed in the meeting,” he added.

PWD minister (excluding undertakings) and BJP leader Chandrakant Patil said the decision was taken after his party MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe demanded toll waiver owing to traffic jam and to give respite to the Ganesh devotees. The state government has been issuing toll exemption passes for the past few years to Ganesh devotees going to their native places in Konkan.

First Published: Aug 21, 2018 10:31 IST