Times View

(With inputs from Sanjay Banerjee & Vijay Singh)

MUMBAI: A convoy of MNS activists in seven cars vandalized the Kamothe toll plaza early on Tuesday, barely hours after it started functioning.Around 25-30 activists of the MNS transport wing broke glass windows of three of the toll booths at 4.45am, in protest against the toll collection which started from Tuesday midnight. They sped away before police arrived. Toll plaza staff were caught unawares and immediately vacated the booths on spotting the mob of protesters and watched the vandalism helplessly. DCP (zone-2) Sanjay Singh Yenpure said, “CCTV cameras installed at Kamothe toll plaza captured images of the cars in which the activists arrived. The accused have been identified and they will be arrested.”Police teams from Kalamboli, Kamothe and Kharghar police stations were later deployed at the toll plazas. Kalamboli traffic unit in-charge, inspector Pradeep Giridhar said, “To streamline traffic movement, five cops of the Kalamboli traffic unit, along with around 50 policemen from local police stations have been deployed at the two toll plazas.”Later, from 8am, as traffic on the Sion-Panvel highway increased, there were major snarls on both lanes, from Kopra village till Kamothe toll plaza and the Mumbai side. Motorists, caught unawares with the abrupt toll collection, argued with staff manning the booths. In fact, toll collection was very meagre as the collection agency had to let several vehicles pass without paying, to ease traffic snarls. Umesh Sonawane, PRO of Sion Panvel Tollways Pvt Ltd, the toll collection agency, said, “The traffic snarls were caused as motorists were asking staff at the booths about exemptions and concessions, buying monthly passes and returning on the same day, etc.”PWD’s executive engineer (Kurla Division), Ramesh Agawane said, “There is no clarity on the exemption. So we have asked SPTPL to exempt all vehicles from Kharghar village and urban areas for some time. Also, vehicles coming from Taloja MIDC area have been exempted from toll. Those vehicles will be given a token to be deposited at the Kharghar toll plaza. Free camps have been organized for citizens to collect exemption stickers.”DCP (traffic) Arvind Salve said, “SPTPL has been told to provide four lanes for cars and five lanes for other types of vehicles to prevent traffic congestion. Staff outside the booth should be provided with hand-held machines to collect toll as well, to prevent traffic snarls.”However, several citizens felt cheated. “First the government makes a smooth five-lane road to speed up traffic and then it builds these toll plazas to make us wait for 40 minutes between Kharghar and Kamothe,” said an angry motorist, Niranjan Singh, near the toll plaza. “This slows down traffic. The government should come up with a better solution,” said computer sales executive A K Shah, who was stuck in the snarl on his way to Pune.A visibly unhappy Panvel BJP MLA Prashant Thakur, who was earlier vocal in his opposition to the toll plaza, said, “Union minister Nitin Gadkari has indicated a plan to frame a policy to exempt cars at toll plazas across the country.”The government needs to come out with a rational, judicious toll policy as soon as possible; there also needs to be much more transparency. A well thought out policy and its speedy implementation will take the wind out of this vandalism trying to masquerade as a protest.