[moralfibre]

News link.

Find it surprising that the bank is being blamed here. Ideally the organisation that isn’t paying back their debt should be held accountable.

That said, this article pulls the completion date back to March.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Find it surprising that the bank is being blamed here. Ideally the organisation that isn’t paying back their debt should be held accountable.

I am confused.
Which organisation would that be?

As per the news item, the Bank is the bottleneck.

The bank was the financer for the highway project. The toll collected from the highway toll plazas was going to the bank’s account, which it was supposed to give to the contractors. However, the bank did not release the money and due to the shortage of funds the project has been delayed.

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

I am confused.
Which organisation would that be?

As per the news item, the Bank is the bottleneck.

Reliance infrastructure is the one contracting for the project. They have had a dismal record on their balance sheet. Therefore the reason for bank's refusal to release funds must be checked before blaming the bank.

[RedTerrano]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

Reliance infrastructure is the one contracting for the project. They have had a dismal record on their balance sheet. Therefore the reason for bank's refusal to release funds must be checked before blaming the bank.

Doesn't make sense.
If they have no funds, how can they proceed with work.
Note I am talking only about the current scenario and not any past inefficiency they might have demonstrated.

Also, as per this news item, the Govt has no intention to take any action against Reliance to avoid further delays.

बॅंकेवर कारवाई केली जाणार तरी कंत्राटदार असणाऱ्या रिलायन्सचे काय? याबाबत विचारले असता कारवाई केल्यावर त्यात दिरंगाई होते. कारवाई न करता कामाकडे लक्ष असल्याचेही गडकरी यावेळी म्हणाले.

https://www.maharashtratoday.co.in/a...nitin-gadkari/

[moralfibre]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Doesn't make sense.
If they have no funds, how can they proceed with work.
Note I am talking only about the current scenario and not any past inefficiency they might have demonstrated.

Also, as per this news item, the Govt has no intention to take any action against Reliance to avoid further delays.

https://www.maharashtratoday.co.in/a...nitin-gadkari/

Govt inaction is a given. If they had to take some action they would have done that over the last decade or so.

What I am saying was that the reason for non-release of funds should be checked before pronouncing the bank guilty. So far the bank hasn't had any other record of blocking projects whereas Reliance infra has had everything going against them including not servicing their debt in time.

My gut tells me that Reliance Infra will sell this project over to another infra builder. In any case the project is managed using a separate entity named PS tollways private limited. Reliance has sold off quite a few of these recently.

[moralfibre]

News link.

This stretch of road and its administration is muckier than I thought. It seems the booth operators had been fleecing money by issuing fake receipts. It means that the amount collected has also been under reported by the operator. It is no surprise that there is vehement opposition to Fastag and toll booth operators are slowing down traffic to make it appear like it has been decision for the worse.

It was also noted that Fastag led to an increase in revenue by NHAI as previously the companies would under report collection and pocket the excess. Related news.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

[b]It seems the booth operators had been fleecing money by issuing fake receipts.

Even before I opened the news link, I was hoping it should be Khedshivapur and indeed it turned out to be.

Pre-Fastag days, I myself have experienced a scam where I was handed over readymade printed receipts that I would learn were fake only after I realised later that both the vehicle number and the timestamp were differently mentioned. This was also the case with Anewadi Plaza too.

Implementation and operational issues aside, FASTag in a way will surely help unearth a lot of such scams happening across our nationwide plazas.

[jomson13]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Even before I opened the news link, I was hoping it should be Khedshivapur and indeed it turned out to be.

Pre-Fastag days, I myself have experienced a scam where I was handed over readymade printed receipts that I would learn were fake only after I realised later that both the vehicle number and the timestamp were differently mentioned. This was also the case with Anewadi Plaza too.

Implementation and operational issues aside, FASTag in a way will surely help unearth a lot of such scams happening across our nationwide plazas.

Indeed. This has happened with me too. At Anewadi.
While Khedshivapur has pretty much adopted the fast tag system well the same cannot be said about Anewadi and Taswade. One time I was asked to pay cash since my tag could not be read. I simply refused and told him that it was his problem - I have sufficient balance in my account and will not pay by cash. Something changed and he relented.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by jomson13

Indeed. This has happened with me too. At Anewadi. While Khedshivapur has pretty much adopted the fast tag system well the same cannot be said about Anewadi and Taswade. One time I was asked to pay cash since my tag could not be read. I simply refused and told him that it was his problem - I have sufficient balance in my account and will not pay by cash. Something changed and he relented.

I just returned to Pune this week having travelled to and from Hubli-Dharwad and it was Fastag all the way in both directions. Not a single issue and no demands for cash except where the tag didn't work as it was blocked but that's another story covered in the Street Experiences --> Fastag thread.

Fastag works, finally! With COVID numbers rising I certainly prefer contactless payments on the highway or in shops.

[Hayek]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

It seems the booth operators had been fleecing money by issuing fake receipts. It means that the amount collected has also been under reported by the operator. It is no surprise that there is vehement opposition to Fastag and toll booth operators are slowing down traffic to make it appear like it has been decision for the worse.

If it turns out that the local booth operators were fleecing the contractors and the government through fake bills, then Pigs have Wings.

There is no doubt that the toll road contractors have had a strong reason to favour cash collection at toll booths. Else they would have gotten together and set up an electronic system - perhaps with discounts for those paying electronically since that would reduce collection costs and the small level of shrinkage caused by local booth operators. Don’t want to express my views on what those incentives might be - but it is easy to guess.

Glad the GOI has forced Fastag through - will save time, increase profitability of road operators and hopefully lead to lower tolls in future.

[akshay386]

Just in News, there is raise in toll tax by 5 % from tomorrow onwards though the road work hasn't been completed.

[vivek95]

Guys, brace up for another horror called "6 laning ( in Maharashtra ) " !! Satara--Kolhapur--Kagal stretch of NH4 to be taken up for 6 laning. The foundation stone has already been laid on September 25th ! Hope the tender is won by a genuine contractor and the work is completed in a top notch manner at the earliest. We have had enough of this never ending hopeless Pune--Satara

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by vivek95

We have had enough of this never ending hopeless Pune--Satara

Yep, saw this in progress at a few patches today. Weekend travel is going to be a nightmare. I just hope this means three usable lanes, and a decent service lane / bye-lane.

[sandeepsc]

Oh God! Another horror episode starts after Satara. The pace at which these works are carried out particularly in Maharashtra is very slow. Land acquisition, local public protest and political interference are some of the major reasons behind delay. I wish Pune-Satara highway story is not repeated for this section of highway.

[vivek95]

@paragsachania @moralfibre and others, I have a good news or may be it is too early to conclude it as a good news , but still, I had a good feeling after many years about Pune--Satara highway. Basically, I drove from Mumbai to Karad today morning and was slightly surprised to see things getting spruced up. Listing out the tiny improvements that I noticed today, hoping that this will turn out to be a big upgrade in the coming months :-

1. Looks like it's no more the stupid Reliance infra managing this project. I specifically saw new company boards - "SDPL infrastructure". On reaching Karad, googled up and learnt that SDPL is Pune based. However didn't find any recent news on internet about SDPL taking this over from Reliance. Any pointers or inside information anyone ??

2. On hitting Pune, the first thing that caught my attention was the slightly better looking medians which used to be an eyesore all these years with the weeds grown all over the place, haphazard alignment, protruding blocks etc. I saw that the weeds were significantly reduced ( lots still there ). The heaped up mud near the bottom portions were cleared up. Some stretches got new paint, new markings. Protruding blocks were set back in place.

3. The median between main highway and service road was even more chaotic all these years. It looked better this time with new paint and other trivial stuff that I mentioned in point no.2

4. At one particular stretch on Pune bypass, the layer of tarmac was new and smooth. This was beyond Ambegaon Budruk heading uphill towards Katraj tunnel.

5. Some stretches had new lane markings

6. Saw good number of labourers in nice uniform and working actively in removing weeds or general beautification of the medians and road in general.

7. The left most 3rd lane had heaped up mud and loose gravel at many places that was left unattended all these years. It was virtually unusable. However right from Pune to Satara, the third lane today looked spruced up and usable. All mud and grass and overgrown weeds are gone. I used the third lane liberally to overtake trucks without hesitation. ( Can't help as some trucks hog the fast lanes ). Earlier I used to be apprehensive about using 3rd lane, but today used it without any worry.

8. There is one diversion between Pune and Shirwal and the flyover and underpass used to look so shabby and haphazard. Today while passing, I noticed that it looked better and the underpass seemed to have been cleaned up.

9. The road surface as such is yet to be atteneded, potholes and dips and worn out surfaces still exist. May be the new guys will touch this part later, hopefully. However the activity of workers that I saw today was certainly never seen before on this 136 km stretch in the last 10 years.

10. Overall the drive ended up with a good feeling. I am hoping that the new contractor completely upgrades this highway in the coming months, especially the road surface and not stop at just some tiny improvements.

Driving back to Mumbai but in dark, will post if I find anything significant on my return journey

--Dr. Vivek