Truckers surprised by MSRDC toll losses

December 6, 2013

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Ashish Roy,TNN |

NAGPUR: City truckers have expressed surprise that the toll operator of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) for recovering IRDP expenses was incurring losses. They claimed that the toll operator staffers charged their truck drivers more than the prescribed toll.MSRDC has five toll plazas around the city at Katol Road, Hingna Road, Umred Road, Ring Road between Hingna-Amravati Road and Wadi-Katol Road. Sahkar Global operates four of them. MSRDC is not finding takers for the three-year toll collection contract. Sahkar has been asked to continue its contract and it is reluctantly doing so.One of the reasons given by the operator and MSRDC officials for low revenue collection is reluctance of truck drivers to pay toll at night. A MSRDC official had told TOI that many truck drivers had beaten up toll plaza staff to avoid paying money.

Faizan Khan, secretary of Truck Owners and Brokers’ Association, claimed that it was the other way round. “The operator’s men extort money from drivers. At least ten to fifteen people are present at a toll booth at night and they easily intimidate one or two people in a truck. Truckers from outstation suffer the most,” he alleged.

According to Khan, the truckers have lodged several complaints with Wadi police, MSRDC and local politicians but to no avail. “The toll receipts do not mention the vehicle number. As a result, if a truck driver is charged extra, we can’t prove anything. The plaza staffers many times charge two-way toll from the trucks, which have no possibility of returning that day,” he further charged.

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com