MSRDC gets `3.8 cr less as toll than expected

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corpo-ration’s plan to make money from the Bandra Worli sea link suffered a set back with toll collectors offering a lesser price on Thursday.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corpo-ration’s plan to make money from the Bandra Worli sea link suffered a set back with toll collectors offering a lesser price on Thursday.

HT Image

The agency was looking at a minimum of Rs 38 crore as toll for six months on the sea link.

However, the highest bid that the MSRDC got was Rs 34.20 crore from Mumbai Entry Point Ltd (MEPL), which previously too held the rights for collecting toll for the link.

The other bidder, Konark Infrastructure, had quoted a price of Rs 24 crore.

Last July MEPL had bagged the tender for collecting toll for 52 weeks for Rs 74 crore. However, the contract had lapsed in the first week of July.

A consortium of Reliance Infrastructure and Hyundai, which has bagged the contract for constructing the next phase of the sea link up to Haji Ali, will also collect the toll.

However, since Reliance has still not handed over Rs 1,634 crore as part of the agreement, MSRDC had to search for a stopgap collector till the new contract was signed.

Senior MSRDC officials said they would finalise when the toll contract should be handed over. “We have been collecting toll on the link since a year and it is a matter of pride for our company to be associated with such a premier project,” MEPL Managing Director Jayant Mhaiskar said.