The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of the common man suffering the inconvenience of pot-holed roads despite paying hefty taxes and toll. This move comes after a case relating to the high toll being collected on the badly-maintained 26-km Raipur-Durg road on NH-53 was presented in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of India has told the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and concessionaires that they cannot collect toll from commuters if the road condition is in a bad shape.
An argument presented by two-judge Bench lead by Justice TS Thakur says, “Why should people pay the toll? Should they pay toll for bad roads? If the roads are bad, it is because of lack of will and policy of the government. They should do something. If concessionaires are not repairing the roads, then also the government should make sure the work is done.”
“General public should not be made to suffer on both counts – bad roads and hefty toll. You should first see that roads can provide convenient travel and then only toll tax can be levied,” the bench further added.
We are not sure how this move will be implemented across the country but this is a welcome change by the apex court and we really hope that things improve in the times to come. So next time you are out on the road, make sure you collect enough evidence about the bad conditions before you can argue about the toll.
The maintenance manual is provided with each concession agreement in BOT projects and is part and parcel of BOT agreement. Generally the BOT contractors are not doing the maintenance of BOT road as per maintenance manual. Same case is regarding Strengthening of road after 5/6 year of construction / Strengthening of road during concession period. The provision of Strengthening is also mentioned in BOT agreement and the BOT contractors are not doing Strengthening as mentioned in BOT agreement.
Thus BOT contractor commits breach of contract. If BOT contractor commits beach of contract NHAI can stop the toll collection with immediate effect but NHAI Officers are not doing their job/ responsibility because of vested interest in BOT contractors.