By mid-2016, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will directly monitor, on real time basis, a total of 42 of the various toll plazas in the state.

Radheshyam Mopalwaar, vice-chairman and managing director of MSRDC, said, "Software would be developed for system integration and for real time toll data collection. It will be linked to a web server at MSRDC office in Mumbai."

"Under the real time monitoring project, data will be shared by directly linking the system with our servers," said a senior official of one of the toll collection agencies associated with MSRDC. As per the project timeline, the system should be up and running by mid-2016. At present, toll collection contractors are submitting revenue and traffic count data on a monthly basis.

Every transaction at the toll booths will be updated every second and will get reflected on the screen of MSRDC officials, making it immediately available to the government officials to retrieve latest data of traffic count as well as revenue collected from various toll-based projects.

The bids for system integration project was floated in November last year, but the work was delayed as the officials were yet to take a final decision on if the data collection should be limited to revenue and traffic count or should be extended to include traffic count through videography.

The toll plazas under the jurisdiction of other government agencies, such as the Public Works Department (PWD), National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and so on would not be covered under this project.

Activist slams 'pointless' project, asks for disclosure of existing data

Slamming the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation's (MSRDC's) move to have system integration and real time toll monitoring, an activist has said such a facility already exists at toll points but the data from is not disclosed by the government, thereby raising suspicion. He said there was no need for the proposed plan.

Speaking to dna about the project, toll activist Sanjay Shirodkar said, "MSRDC has already installed Automatic Traffic Counter-Cum-Classifier (ATCC) system at the toll plazas, which serve the same purpose. Then why suddenly another project by a different name but serving the same purpose?"

According to him, the ATCC data is not being shared by MSRDC officials. It was also recently alleged that there was under reporting of toll collection by up to 50 per cent (The report appeared in dna on January 21, titled 'Pune E-way toll 50% under-reported: Activists'). Shirodkar claimed that with sharing of ATCC data in public domain, a lot of discrepancies would roll out. "There is corruption involved, which is holding the officials back from sharing the ATCC data," he added.

The activist also criticised the concept of the proposed system – an integration project for real time procuring of data through servers of toll collection contractors. "Data from independent traffic data collection system should directly come to the government server, unlike the proposed idea, where it will come via the contractor's server. By linking data collection to contractor's server, there is a scope of manipulated data getting delivered to MSRDC officials. It isn't fool proof," said Shirodkar.

Moreover, if private agencies are already submitting toll collection data on a monthly basis, it is pointless to have the same data on real time basis by spending the taxpayer's money. Additionally, all toll collection agencies also have cameras installed at each of the lanes and the traffic count data from it goes to the private agency. This is one of the sources from where it can be ascertained if the toll collection data was rigged or not.

Trying for transparency

In July last year, the state information commission had ordered the Maharashtra government to put up on its website all the details related to the public private partnership model (PPP), agreements entered into, why a private party was selected, and especially the details on toll contracts.

State chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad had given the order following a complaint filed by Pune resident Vivek Velankar, who had cited non-compliance of a DoPT circular by the government and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

Thereafter last year, following the decision, thousands of pages were uploaded on the websites of Public Works Department (PWD) and MSRDC, comprising toll contracts and collections. But despite the submission of monthly toll data, the website is yet to be updated every month.

TOLL COLLECTIONS

GHODBUNDER ROADMONTH: September 2015TOLL COLLECTED: Rs 2,48,57,670

NH-4 / OLD MUMBAI PUNE HIGHWAYMONTH: September 2015TOLL COLLECTED: Rs 14,60,85,196.75

MUMBAI PUNE EXPRESSWAYMONTH: August 2015TOLL COLLECTED: Rs 34,22,82,122

FIVE MUMBAI ENTRY POINTSMONTH: August 2015TOLL COLLECTED: Rs 33,42,88,000