R-Infra Ltd

Anil Ambani

P S Toll Road Private Limited

Pune-Bangalore highway

Nitin Gadkari

Ghatkopar-Andheri Metro

Anil Ambani

The Khed-Shivapur toll naka on Pune-Bangalore highway

P S Toll Road Private Limited, a subsidiary of, was also accused of diverting toll collections to invest in mutual funds.The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has offered thecontrolleda loan of Rs 260 crore despite the company missing deadline after deadline to complete the widening of a crucial stretch of theand being accused of diverting toll money to invest in mutual funds.The decision was taken in February last year under NHAI’s One Time Fund Infusion Scheme (OTFIS) in the presence of Union Minister for Surface Transportand the Mumbai office of NHAI has now forwarded the proposal to the headquarters in Delhi.P S Toll Road Private Limited, a subsidiary of R-Infra Ltd, which runs the, has been given five extensions for the widening of the 140 km stretch since 2010, when it bagged the project.The original deadline to complete the project was 30 months with a provision to extend it by 12 months.It secured the first extension in November 2014 with a new deadline for completion - December 2015. The last extension was given in March 2019. This time, the new deadline was set for June 2019. But by company’s own admission, it had completed 93.6 % of the work by January 2019.As per the contract conditions, in case of a concessionaire failing to achieve two project milestones, it would have to complete the third using its own resources. He would be allowed to draw money from the escrow account only after he completes the third milestone within the deadline.However, while the project was repeatedly delayed, the NHAI did not use this condition against P S Toll even once.Another clause said that concessionaire will be levied a penalty of 0.1% of security deposit for every day of delay, with the maximum penalty chargeable capped at 20 % of the security deposit. This clause too was never invoked against P S Toll by NHAI.And the pace of work is not the only area where P S Toll Road has been found wanting. Between October 2010 and October 2012, it diverted Rs 225 crore collected through toll to mutual funds. According to its contract with NHAI, the money should have stayed in an escrow account and used only for project-related expenses. The company moved the money back into the escrow account only after being pulled up the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The NHAI took a rather lenient view of P S Toll Road’s misconduct and imposed on it a penalty of only Rs 22 lakh.There is a dispute between the NHAI and P S Toll Road over payment of premium too. Premium is the amount that a concessionaire (in this case P S Toll Road) must pay NHAI under a profit-sharing agreement. P S Toll Road had agreed to pay a premium of Rs 90.9 crore to NHAI in the first year, with the amount going up by 5 per cent every subsequent year.P S Toll Road claimed that at the meeting where NHAI promised it a loan to complete the project, the highway authority also agreed to defer payment of the premium for the period January 2019-June 2019. However, the NHAI denied this and said that P S Toll Road will have to pay the premium out of the loan amount.Lawyer and social activist Pravin Wategaonkar said, “We have already filed a complaint with the CBI against NHAI officials and R-Infra. Now, with these documents in our possession about NHAI’s plans to give Rs 260 crore to R-Infra to complete the project, we are going to approach the CBI once again.”In response to an e-mail sent to R-Infra, its spokesman said there is nothing wrong with P SToll Road receiving a loan under NHAI’s One Time Fund Infusion Scheme. “The project is being executed and run under the Concession Agreement and NHAI policy guidelines. The proposal under OTFIS has been made with a view to complete the project early as it has already been delayed for reasons beyond the control of the concessionaire, and in total compliance with the NHAI policy guidelines. We are committed to early completion of the project,” he said.The spokesman also said that the project got delayed due to issues related to land acquisition, environment and forest clearance.On diversion of funds collected through toll to mutual funds, the spokesman said: “It was a permissible investment, otherwise banks would not have allowed to divert money from escrow account. After CAG raised the objection, the money was moved back into the escrow.”The spokesman refused to offer any comment when asked that if there was no illegality involved in investing the toll collections into mutual funds, why was the money moved back into the escrow account after CAG rap.Emails and text messages sent to NHAI’s director projects R K Pandey and Gadkari’s office remained unanswered. On Monday, Pandey told Mumbai Mirror that the concerned officer would call and answer all the questions raised in the email sent to him.However, nobody from NHAI had called Mumbai Mirror till late Tuesday night. There was no response to calls made on a number provided by Pandey on Monday. Text messages left on this number too went unanswered.