Delhi Noida Direct flyway toll-free
The Supreme Court has recently refused to put a stay on Allahabad High Court’s order making Delhi Noida Direct flyway toll-free.
Additionally, the court has also appointed an auditor to further examine the accounts of the toll company in order to ascertain its cost and profit.
In the last week of October, the high court had further scrapped the toll levied on the customers on the Delhi Noida Direct flyway, that connects south-east Delhi with Noida across the Yamuna river.
The Noida Toll Bridge Company Ltd (NTBCL) — this special purpose vehicle had been promoted by project sponsor IL&FS to develop, construct, operate and also maintain Delhi Noida Direct – had filed a petition before the top court against the high court order, but it has somewhere failed now.
The Supreme Court had also told the company that it had not ‘built a road to the moon.’
Toll was unreasonable and way too high
The Allahabad High Court order had now come on a public interest petition filed by a body of Noida residents.
A Bench comprising of Justice Arun Tandon and Justice Sunita Agrawal have now considered several aspects of the case before further ruling that NTBCL had “recovered all the reasonable returns” on its investment, and was no longer entitled to further collect toll.
There had been frequent complaints that the toll, which is Rs 28 levied on cars – was unreasonable and way too high.
However, as per the company’s accounts, it should have been able to further collect Rs 2,339.6 crore in 2012, Rs 3,448.9 crore in the year 2014, and over Rs 5,000 crore in 2016.
The Supreme Court Bench had also earlier observed that the “total cost of this Project can never be further recovered and moreover the bridge will never be free from the levy of Toll”, if this formula for the calculation was allowed to continue.
