Hyderabad: New toll management system coming up on ORR

Hyderabad: With a rise in instances of malpractices in the construction of the outer ring road (ORR), the Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL) has decided to stem the rot with a comprehensive toll management system. With Rs 8.44 crore earmarked for the project, it has invited tenders for taking it up for three years. The toll management system will use three types of toll collection methods, including electronic toll collection (ETC), touch and go (T&G) and manual. The general public using the ORR will be charged a toll proportionate to the distance being traveled.

The system will entail toll lane equipment that will be installed in the tollbooth, the toll island or its vicinity for collecting the amount. There will be a six vehicle classification, which will be based on the vehicle and their sizes, including cars, jeeps, vans, trucks and equipment carriers. Quarterly payments will be collected on a monthly pro-rata rate basis.

According to highly placed sources, municipal authority officials who had colluded with a private agency had reduced the annual toll collection amount from Rs 380 crore to Rs 363. The HMDA authorities have neither reduced the individual toll amount nor is there a plunge in vehicle movements on the ORR. However, officials, who had invited bids in September, are asking the shortlisted private agencies to pay Rs 1.36 lakh per day. Surprisingly, though a couple of agencies have come forward to take up the project, the municipal authorities did not shortlist them citing unknown reasons. The officials claimed that there were no takers for TMS forcing the nodal agency to revise bids to attract private agencies. In the recently invited bids, the nodal agency without reducing the contract period (18 months) or toll price, among other parameters, reduced the annual bid amount of Rs 360.33 crore and asked the short listed agency to pay Rs 1.04 lakh per day.

A senior HMDA official said that 95 per cent of toll collection is digital while the remaining five per cent will be cash payments. "We are focussing on cash payments where there is scope for malpractice. CTMS monitoring will help in zeroing in on the culprits," he added.  However, HGCL officials were unavailable for comment on the latest developments.