Chetan Prabhakar
There are three public funded toll road projects in the UT of Jammu Kashmir. Below are the details of these three public funded toll road projects:
Lakhanpur/ Rajbagh NH-44 of J&K: This is a public funded toll road project. The tollable length of this road is 46 Kms. The road is on Jammu-Pathankot Stretch. There are no facilities available such as Rest areas, Truck Lay byes and Static Weigh Bridge. Fee Effective Date was 01-Apr-2019 and due date of toll revision was 31-Mar-2020. The commercial operation date was 22nd February 2017,however, currently toll boothsare not in operations, however, National Highway Authority of India has proposed to implement the levy of user fee on this public funded toll road project.
Thandikui NH-44 of J&K: This is again a public funded toll road project. The tollable length of this road is 46 Kms. The road is on Samba to Kunjwani Stretch. There are different prices for different types of vehicles and the basic fee starts form Rs. 70/- for car/jeep/van and increases accordingly. The facilities available are One Rest Areas at Chichi Mata, One Truck Lay byes and no Static Weigh Bridge. Fee Effective Date was 01-Apr-2019 and due date of toll revision was 31-Mar-2020. The commercial operation date was 22nd February 2017.
Bann NH-44 of J&K: This is a public funded toll road. The tollable length of this road is 53.1225 Kms, between Jammu Bye Pass to Udhampur. The road is on Jammu Bye Pass to Udhampur Stretch. There are different prices for different types of vehicles and the toll fee starts from Rs. 140 for Car/Jeep/Van and increases accordingly.The facilities available are no Rest Areas, Seven Truck Lay byes and Two Static Weigh Bridge. The revised fee effective date was 01-Apr-2020. The commercial operation date was 20-Mar- 2015.
The rate revision order with ref. nos. NHAI/R0-Jammu/2016-17/11056/T.P/575 dated 13-Mar-2019, NHAI/R0-Jammu/2016-17/11056/T.P/734 dated 29-Mar-2020 and NHAI/R0-Jammu/2016-17/11056/T.P/735 dated 29-Mar-2020 issued by the NHAI for revision of toll fee can be called as arbitrary in nature as they do not provide any basis and/or calculation for arriving at the revised toll fee.
It is also pertinent to mention here that toll booths have been abolished on 62 Public Funded bridges by NHAI as per the news published on the home page of the website of NHAI.
There are four questions arising from the study of implementation of public funded toll road projectsin the district of Jammu, which are as follows:
* What was the reason to incorporate the proviso to Rule 3 (1) of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 which provides ‘that the Central Government may, by notification, exempt any section of national highway, permanent bridge, bypass or tunnel constructed through a public funded project from levy of such fee or part thereof, and subject to such conditions as may be specified in that notification?’
* On what basis Toll Booths have been abolished on 62 Public Funded Bridges and why the same basis cannot be applied in the UT of Jammu of Kashmir for the public funded toll road projects of Lahkhanpur, Thandikhui and Bann?
* What are the basis on which the toll fee is charged and what are the basis of its annual revision when the revision letters do not provide any basis and is it as per Rule 5 of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 which provides revision of basic fee by 3% without compounding among others?
* Why the Bann Toll Plaza and Thandikhui toll plazas are constructed at a distance of around 31.5 Kms, whereas, Rule 8 (2) of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 provides that ‘any other toll plaza on the same section of national highway and in the same direction shall not be established within a distance of sixty kilometers’?
The public funded toll road projects can be exempted from the levy of toll fee for the following reasons:
* Rule 3 of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 provides that the Central Government may, by notification, exempt any section of national highway, permanent bridge, bypass or tunnel constructed through a public funded project from levy of such fee or part thereof, and subject to such conditions as may be specified in that notification.
* 62 toll booths have been abolished on public funded bridges by NHAI and the same parameters can be made applicable in the three public fund toll road projects of Lakhanpur, Thandikhui and bann in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
* Article 19 of the Constitution of India guarantees to its citizen free movement throughout the territory of India and the imposition of levy of heavy user fee, at short distances, in a publicfundedprojects wherein the Central Government can exempt the levy of toll fee as embedded Rule 3 (1) the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 is hampering the fundamental rights of the citizens of India.
* The revision letters do not provide any basis for arriving at the toll fee as per Rule 5 of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 which provides revision of basic fee by 3% without compounding among others.
* These are public funded toll road projects which means that these toll road projects have been constructed through the public funds generated by the Government from direct taxes, indirect taxes, road taxes etc. and collected from the public at large and these public funds are generated by the Government to provide goods and services to the general public.
In view of the aforesaid, the Government of UT of J&K may consider to take this matter with the Central Government in light of the current outcry of public at large within the UT of J&K, for implementation of the following:
a) Toll Booths on the public funded toll road projects of Lakhanpur, Thandikhui and Bann in Jammu region be exempted as per Rule 3 of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008 by applying the same basis by which toll booths on 62 public funded bridges have been abolished; or in the alternative.
b) One of the toll plazas falling within 60 Kms in the same section of national highway and in the same direction be abolished which is as per Rule 8 (2) of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates & Collection) Rules 2008.
(The author is an Advocate at Jammu & Kashmir High Court at Jammu)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel
