Why are we paying good money for a backbreaking ride? That is a question commuters using the Jaipur-Delhi highway are asking. Instead of a smooth ride on a toll road, the stretch between the four flyovers straddling Bawal and Bilaspur is an exasperating test at avoiding potholes and rough stretches.

The highway has been in poor shape since last November, with National Highways Authority of India, which gets the majority share of 58.6 per cent of the toll revenue, failing to maintain the road. Commuters pay Rs 250-300 as toll. On Wednesday, TOI drove on the highway to find drivers swerving, changing lanes and braking suddenly to avoid potholes. Commuters reported driving at night is worse because spotting the craters is almost impossible.

The Times of India has learnt that the highway developer, Pink City Expressway Ltd (PCEL), carried out milling, or scraping of the surface for repaving, on the damaged segments in November and then approached the banks for funds to carry out the repairs. When the lenders turned them down for fear of losses due to overexposure to the project, they abandoned the repairs.

Sources said that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) intervened and discussed the issue with the banks and both decided to invite bids for maintenance rather than pay PCEL to carry out piecemeal repairs. "PCEL has a poor track record," alleged an NHAI official.

NHAI then decided to allocate the work to a third party bidder, inviting two bids, one for the segment in Haryana and the other for Rajasthan, worth Rs 14 crore. However, there was no response from qualified bidders. The norms were relaxed to allow six months for restoration work, and the rebidding attracted two bids each for the Haryana and Rajasthan sections.

Another NHAI official disclosed: "We have sought the permission of the Election Commission to open the bids and award the contract. We hope to award the work in the next few days. Our target will be to complete the work in three-four months." A senior executive of PCEL said the company had offered to take up the repairs if NHAI agreed to pay it the amount earmarked for maintenance.

The highways authority intends to recover the cost of repairs through toll collected on the highway. The total toll income on the 225km stretch in 2017-18 was around Rs 660 crore, with NHAI's share being nearly Rs 370 crore. This is one of the few highway projects with a revenue-sharing model. The remaining revenue goes into repaying the bank loans availed by PCEL.

Work on widening the highway from Gurgaon to Jaipur, which began in 2009 and was to have been completed by October 2011, is also stuck. PCEL officials claimed they could have met the deadline had NHAI provided the required land. "Even after nine-and-half years, land has not been given to us at certain spots, so there have been huge cost overruns," said one of them. Sources said both the highway developer and consortium of lending banks are staring at losses of at least Rs 1,000 crore.

NHAI officials, in turn, blamed PCEL for its inability to manage the project.

