Heavy vehicles will have to pay toll on Sion-Panvel highway for 6 more months

The Maharashtra government has allowed the Sion-Panvel Tollways Private Limited, which has done major improvements on the highway, to continue collecting the charge.

Heavy vehicles will have to pay toll on the busy Sion-Panvel highway for at least six more months. The Maharashtra government has allowed the Sion-Panvel Tollways Private Limited, which has done major improvements on the highway, to continue collecting the charge.

Advocate general Anil Singh informed the Bombay high court (HC) that the notification issued in January 2015 to the group of IVRCL Assets and Holdings and Kakade Infrastructure will be extended before it expires on Tuesday.

Singh was responding to a petition filed by the contractor against the inaction by the state authorities in granting them necessary permissions to collect toll despite the completion of major improvement work on the 23-km stretch of the state highway.

According to its petition, the group had finalised an agreement with the state government on January 19, 2011, for 17 years and five months, including three years to complete the improvement work.

To recover the expected expenditure of Rs 1,220 crore, the group was to start collecting toll after procuring the provisional completion certificate from the authorities concerned. The group moved the HC on September 29, 2014, as the state failed to issue the required documents.

The notification was finally issued in January 2015 after a HC order. On Monday, senior advocate Milind Sathe, counsel for the group, pointed out the need to extend the notification.

However, the toll will be collected only from heavy vehicles as the state had, in May 2015, exempted light motor vehicles from the charges. The group has also challenged the validity of this decision by filing another petition.

The division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice AK Menon has posted both the petitions and some applications opposing the extension for further hearing in two weeks.Heavy vehicles will have to pay toll on Sion-Panvel highway for 6 more months

HT Correspondent

htmetro@hindustantimes.com

Mumbai

Heavy vehicles will have to pay toll on the busy Sion-Panvel highway for at least six more months. The state government has allowed the Sion-Panvel Tollways Private Limited, which has done major improvements on the highway, to continue collecting the charge.

Advocate general Anil Singh informed the Bombay high court (HC) that the notification issued in January 2015 to the group of IVRCL Assets and Holdings and Kakade Infrastructure will be extended before it expires on Tuesday.

Singh was responding to a petition filed by the contractor against the inaction by the state authorities in granting them necessary permissions to collect toll despite the completion of major improvement work on the 23-km stretch of the state highway.

According to its petition, the group had finalised an agreement with the state government on January 19, 2011, for 17 years and five months, including three years to complete the improvement work.

To recover the expected expenditure of Rs 1,220 crore, the group was to start collecting toll after procuring the provisional completion certificate from the authorities concerned. The group moved the HC on September 29, 2014, as the state failed to issue the required documents.

The notification was finally issued in January 2015 after a HC order. On Monday, senior advocate Milind Sathe, counsel for the group, pointed out the need to extend the notification.

However, the toll will be collected only from heavy vehicles as the state had, in May 2015, exempted light motor vehicles from the charges. The group has also challenged the validity of this decision by filing another petition.

The division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice AK Menon has posted both the petitions and some applications opposing the extension for further hearing in two weeks.