Independent regulator for highways proposed

Independent regulator for highways proposed
The Hindu Business Line, January 1, 2010, Page 15

Bid to ensure quality service for those paying tolls.

A line of vehicles at a toll booth

Mamuni Das, New Delhi,

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry is actively considering a proposal to have an “independent regulatory body” which will be mandated to ensure that the highway users get a certain level of quality service for the toll they pay.

The regulatory body, which is proposed to be outside of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), will ensure that the road contractors and developers maintain the standards that they are supposed to according to the concession agreement between them and the NHAI.

Currently, the NHAI is the implementing agency for highway development projects and it is also supposed to function as a regulator.

The NHAI has implemented 77 projects on a public private partnership basis, according to recent data of the Department of Economic Affairs.

“There are facilities including parking slots along the highways or lay byes, rest rooms and restaurants which a road developer is supposed to provide. After all, he is levying the toll for not the just the highway but these services as well. But, usually, the trend has been that once the roads are ready, the tolling starts and everything else is forgotten. The users then do not really have a forum to register their complaints on any highway developer as well,” an official source aware of the development told Business Line.

On whether there exists any data on how many concessionaires are deviating from the service deliveries as promised in the concession agreement, the official replied in negative. “That is precisely why there is such a need,” he said.

Recently, a parliamentary committee -- the Committee of Public Undertakings – also took a grim view of the fact that the concessionaire in Delhi-Gurgaon highway, which is a NHAI project, is not providing basic roadside amenities almost two years after it started functioning.

“All aspects monitoring and supervision were left in the hands of independent consultants,” the committee said and questioned the monitoring role of the Road Transport Ministry and the NHAI in the context of this project.

NHAI's stand

“The NHAI has washed off its hands of its responsibilities by submitting that monitoring and supervision is the responsibility of the independent consultants. Thereafter, the Government has washed off its hands by submitting that it is for the NHAI to enforce the provisions and has to give directions only if something is brought to their notice,” the committee stated in its report.

A Cabinet note will be floated subject to the approval of the Road Transport and Highways Minister, Mr Kamal Nath.