Bandra-Worli Sea Link

BWSL

Pune-Mumbai Expressway

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation

MSRDC

Bandra-Versova Sea Link

BVSL

Airoli Creek Bridge

Panel headed by CM also approves extension of toll collection period for Pune-Mum Expressway and Thane Creek Bridge.The ride on the state’s roads is certainly not easy, particularly on the pockets.Motorists will have to keep paying toll on the) till 2052, 13 years more than the original deadline, so that the administration can shore up funds for other infrastructure projects. Ditto for the, where the toll period has been extended to 2045 from 2030, and the Thane Creek Bridge, where commuters have to pay tax up to 2036. The initial deadline was 2026.The cabinet committee on infrastructure, headed by, approved the toll collection extension proposal of the) at a meeting in June this year.The minutes of the meeting were confirmed in another meeting of the sub-committee held in August.“An official notification to this effect will be issued very soon,” said MSRDC’s joint managing director KV Kurundkar.MSRDC has spent Rs 1,634 crore on building the 5.6-km cable-stayed BWSL and the collection of toll on the bridge was supposed to be for a period of 30 years, till 2039. The corporation now wants to extend the toll collection period to raise funds for other projects such as the), which is expected to cost around Rs 7,500 crore.Around 35,000 vehicles ply on BWSL every day. Currently, the oneway toll for a car is Rs 60, while a return trip costs Rs 90. From 2009, the year it was thrown open, till now, MSRDC has managed to collect around Rs 575 crore as toll.Justifying the long toll-collection period, an MSRDC official said, “When we approach financial institutions for loans for projects such as BVSL, they seek guarantee from the state government. However, the state has stopped giving guarantee to loans raised by its undertakings as it puts a burden on its finances. In such a scenario, the only recourse available to us is to extend the period of toll collection on assets we have, so that banks are assured about our loan repayment ability.”As for the Pune-Mumbai Expressway, the popular perception among motorists is that vehicles using the link will not have to pay toll at Khalapur and Talegaon booths from 2019, the year IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd’s contract to collect toll ends. This is not right though, MSRDC officials pointed out.They said that only the IRB’s rights to collect toll — in lieu of an upfront payment made to MSRDC in 2004 — will come to an end in 2019. The MSRDC will continue to have the right to collect toll till 2030. The corporation had sold the rights to collect toll for the expressway and maintain it to IRB in 2004 for 15 years for a sum of Rs 918 crore.The MSRDC now wants to extend the period of toll collection on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway to finance the project called Missing Links.Currently, traffic from both the expressway and NH-4 merge at the ghat section, which causes traffic jam. The MSRDC, through an elevated and underground road, proposes to segregate traffic from both roads through the Missing Links project. The cost will come to around Rs 4,800 crore.The MSRDC will be developing a third bridge on Thane creek at Vashi, which will cost around Rs 777 crore. To finance this, the state government has given the nod to the MSRDC’s proposal to collect toll on the creek bridge till 2036.The first Thane Creek Bridge was built in 1973, but the two-lane bridge corroded soon. So, in 1987, the state government started to build a second bridge, which was thrown open to the public in 1997.Until recently, traffic between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai moved on the second six-lane bridge, and only light vehicles were allowed to use the old bridge. But after cracks were spotted in the old bridge last August, traffic was stopped on it.“The maximum capacity of the 1997 bridge is 12,500 passenger car units (PCUs) per day. But 17,500 PCUs use the bridge already, so we felt an urgent need for a third bridge,” an MSRDC official said.Of Mumbai’s five entry points, toll will be collected at only Thane Creek Bridge after 2026. No toll will be levied at the four other points after MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd’s contract ends in 2026. The four entry points are Dahisar, Mulund, Lal Bahadur Shastri Road and