Peripheral expressway may be stalled once again due to differences between Planning Commission & FinMin

NEW DELHI: A long-pending Rs 3,000-crore peripheral expressway around the national capital could get stalled again due to differences between the Planning Commission and the finance ministry. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will chair a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure (CCI) this week to consider the 135-kilometre eastern peripheral expressway for the third time in six years.

In April 2011, the PM had asked for the project, first cleared in 2006, to be awarded as soon as possible. But that clearance is being re-visited, thanks to a controversial proposal by road minister CP Joshi to allow the expressway builder to charge a toll rate 150% higher than other expressways. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked Joshi's ministry to explain how a higher toll rate is 'in public interest'.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, PM's trusted aide, however, is firmly behind Joshi. Ahluwalia, deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission, has over-ruled reservations expressed by the commission's member in charge of infrastructure BK Chaturvedi.

The CCI has 18 members, including Mukherjee and Joshi. Ahluwalia is a special invitee to the panel. Joshi's push for a higher toll by treating the expressway as a 'bypass road' marks a complete shift from his own ministry's stance till April 2011 and all past Cabinet approvals for the project.

Mukherjee has asked the roads ministry to 'confirm that the change in stand now is in public interest'. The finance ministry has opposed the higher toll rate stating that it will divert traffic volumes and result in 'undue benefits' to the developer of a competing western peripheral expressway.

According to current rates, riders from Haryana and Punjab approaching or seeking to go around the capital on the western peripheral expressway would pay around 108. To traverse the same length on the eastern expressway would cost Rs 162.

Chaturvedi has said that the expressway's toll rate 'should not be re-opened' as the Cabinet had already delegated the matter to the Public Private Partnerships Appraisal Committee (PPPAC). Though higher toll rates may attract better bids for the project, he has warned that 'to that extent, people would be taxed more... the expressway's usage may get limited,' vitiating the very purpose of the project. But the Plan Panel's official position on the Cabinet note, urgently dispatched last week at the behest of the PMO's new principal secretary Pulok Chatterjee, makes light of such concerns.

"Planning Commission concurs with the proposal…It is for the ministry to decide, after taking all factors into account, whether this is a bypass or a highway and subject to that decision, the relevant toll rate should be applied," Ahluwalia has said in the note.

Dismissing Chaturvedi's point about the PPPAC's role, Ahluwalia has said that it is an 'official level committee' and the road transport and highways minister is 'not bound by it'. Road secretary AK Upadhyay refused to discuss details, but told ET: "It is now up to the cabinet to take a decision on the expressway and the toll rate for it."

The Supreme Court had asked for two peripheral expressways around the capital to de-congest its roads from inter-state traffic, which the Centre approved in 2006 with a completion deadline of 2010. The western expressway was awarded in 2006 but has missed the deadline. Twenty four bidders have qualified for the eastern expressway, whose estimated cost has steadily risen from around Rs 2,400 crore in 2007.

UP Residents to be Hit Hard

A higher toll rate for the expressway, which would mostly service road users approaching the capital from Uttar Pradesh, could turn into a political issue. “This would be too much for UP residents to bear,” said BJP’s state general secretary Rakeshji. “We will tell voters about the UPA’s plan to charge them 150% more than other expressway users.” Areas around the expressway like Dadri, Ghaziabad and Jewar vote in the state's assembly polls on February 28.