Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, on Wednesday, told Rajya Sabha members that he was the ‘Father of Toll Tax Plaza’ on the expressway in the country as he built it. The first such road was built in Maharashtra during his tenure as minister of state in the late 1990s.
The senior minister made the remarks while replying to supplementary questions during the Question Hour, where members expressed concern over the construction of toll plazas on the expressway within the city limits. Because of this, the local population had to pay a toll even when they entered the city.
Gadkari, who is often praised even by Opposition members for the performance of his ministry, has assured the members that the issue will be rectified and claimed that the problem arose under the UPA regime.
Gadkari said that before 2014, when the UPA government was there, toll was levied near the city area and everyone had to pay it. It was very unfortunate and illegal.
He said, “Luckily or unfortunately, I am the father of this toll, because for the first time in this country I started the toll system and the first project of BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) was started in Thane, Maharashtra. . During Gadkari’s tenure as PWD minister in the Maharashtra government between 1995 and 1999, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway project, the first of its kind, was initiated.
Gadkari said in the new system that is going to start, we will see that the area of the city will end, and no fee will be charged from the people. He said that often people of the city use only 10 km of the expressway road and are asked to pay toll for 75 km. While addressing the concerns of the members, he has said that this is absolutely wrong, but it is not my problem and it happened during the previous government. We’ll fix it.”