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| Edited By: DNA Web Team |Source: DNA Web Desk |Updated: Aug 04, 2022, 07:13 AM IST
Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways on wednesday informed Rajya Sabha members that he was the ""father of expressway toll in India" as he had built the first such road in Maharashtra during his tenure as state minister in the late 1990s.
The road transport minister made the comment while replying to supplementary questions during Question Hour, during which members voiced worry about the construction of toll plazas on expressways within city borders, forcing residents to pay tolls even when commuting within the city.
Gadkari, who is ofently hailed even by opposition members for the performance of his ministry, told the members that the matter will be resolved and claimed that the problem had occurred during the UPA's tenure.
"Before 2014, when the UPA government was there, tolls were installed near the city areas and everyone had to pay it, this is very unfortunate and unlawful", he said.
"Fortunately or unfortunately, I am the father of this toll since I created the toll system for the first time in this country, and the first BOT (build-operate-transfer) project was Thane in Maharashtra," Gadkari added.
The first-of-its-kind Mumbai-Pune Expressway project was undertaken during Gadkari's tenure as PWD minister in the Maharashtra government between 1995 and 1999.
The minister assured that with the new approach, "we will see that the toll plazasd in city area be gone and there would be no fee on the citizens.
