High court asks HMDA to improve toll collection on ORR

HYDERABAD: Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of Hyderabad high court on Monday directed officials of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) to put in place adequate safeguards to improve toll collections on Outer Ring Road (ORR) stretches. The state has been suffering a revenue loss of Rs 2 crore per month from just one stretch of the ORR.
The judge suggested steps like prescribing a minimum bid or entering into negotiations with the technically-qualified bidders for ensuring a better price.While the successful bidder quoted nearly Rs 4 crore per month, the earlier contractor was paying only Rs 2 crore per month. Interestingly, the old contractor who did not even participate in the current tender process, came forward after the new contractor was selected and urged the authorities to renew his licence and agreed to pay Rs 4 crore per month to the state.
The judge came across this while dealing with competing claims of the successful bidders and few other unsuccessful ones over the award of the contract of installing toll plazas along with relevant equipment and also of collecting toll-fee from the vehicle owners on the ORR stretches.
HMDA, which developed ORR, issued a tender notification on March 25, 2014, for collection of user fee charges. It invited tenders on the basis of competitive bidding for the Nehru Outer Ring Road stretch from Pedda Amberpet to Shamirpet via Shamshabad, Narsingi, Patancheru, Dundigal and Medchal for a length of 119 kms. Aggrieved by the allotment of this contract to a successful bidder, several unsuccessful bidders filed scores of petitions in the high court challenging the methods adopted by authorities in the final selection. Though the judge dismissed all the petitions, he however recorded some of their claims who were willing to pay more amounts and recorded the failure of the HMDA authorities in maximising revenues.