ISLAMABAD - Contractors employed to run four toll plazas on Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road (N-135) are involved in overcharging of toll rates but instead of cancelling their contracts, the National Highway Authority is only issuing warning letters.
The four toll plazas located at Fatehpur, Chowk Sarwar Shaheed, Khansar and Mianwali were awarded to M/s Ghous Bakhsh Buzdar, M/s IK Enterprises and M/s Pervaiz Ahmed Bhatti respectively for next three years from 1st July 2022.
Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road was a provincial highway and recently it was federalised and given under the control of NHA. It was decided at the time of its federalisation that the same toll as applicable on provincial highways would be charged by NHA till the improvement of the said road.
Later, the NHA board also approved that the same provincial rates would be taken from the commuters till improvement of the road network.
It is pertinent to mention that NHA toll rates are about 50 percent higher than the rates applicable on provincial highways with respect to different categories of vehicles. For instance, NHA is charging Rs250 for articulated trucks but provincial highways are charging Rs150 in the same category.
When the aforementioned toll plazas were presented for bidding, over a dozen contractors were in the running to win the contract but they were confused about the toll rates and the same ambiguity was also highlighted by a contractor in the pre-bid meeting.
The NHA officials categorically clarified in the approved minutes of the meeting that the provincial rates, which were already applicable on the route, would be collected by the successful bidder.
According to the sources, most of the potential bidders made their financial calculations according to the provincial rates but three bidders clouted and gave very high bids. Resultantly, they won the contract to operate these four toll plazas, which was astonishing for the rest of the players.
However, the actual ‘under the table’ settlement surfaced when the successful contractors started to charge high toll rates on these toll plazas and mysteriously the field office remained silent over this illegality for about two months and the concerned general manager did not even reported the overcharging issue to the headquarters.
But, later when citizens approached the road authority and complained that contractors are charging high toll rates and requested to ensure implementation of actual rates, NHA came out of hibernation. Though, NHA headquarter responded to the complaints but at the snail pace apparently to give a favour to the contractors, who pocketed millions of rupees in the last two months by overcharging of toll rates.
The Directorate of Revenue called the contractors into the office of member finance on 19th August 2022 and directed them to charge agreed rates and the same decision was conveyed to the regional General Manager Maintenance N-135 for implementation.
He was directed by NHA headquarter to make sure that the original toll rates be affixed on all toll plazas and he must ensure that the same rates be charged by the contractors.
However, according to the locals, besides passing two months, the contractors are still charging high rates and they did not bother to comply with the directions of NHA headquarter.
When contacted, the Director Public Relations NHA Sohail Aftab said he will respond after consulting the concerned directorate and later he replied that the concerned general manger has confirmed that there were complaints of overcharging by the contractors.
He however assured that in next few days, the contractors would be compelled to charge actual toll rates scheduled in the agreement but no answer is given whether recovery proceedings would be initiated against the contractors for overcharging or not.