The Sena-BJP government's flyover-building spree has made its Public Works Department Minister Nitin Gadkari the focus of attention. Basking in the limelight for his infrastructure development projects - roads, flyovers and bridges - the 42-year-old minister is now in the hot seat following the row over the imposition of toll to pay for them.Speaking to Sandeep Unnithan, Gadkari vociferously defended his `pay and use' policy as the only option to recover money for the projects.Why is the government collecting toll for flyovers when, in the last 20 years, only 25 per cent of the money paid by motorists to the Central and state governments for infrastructure has been utilised? In 1994-95 alone this figure was a staggering Rs 19,374 crore.n THE money from the vehicle tax goes directly into the Central kitty. Even the income from the cess we imposed on petrol and diesel earlier this year is at the discretion of the state finance minister. My department has an annual budget of 1,400 crore as against arequirement of some 14,000 crore for pending infrastructure projects. Our budget priority is for rural projects. I can safely say that with the existing level of annual state and central funding, it would take 50 years to complete urban projects, some of which have been pending for over two decades.We have thus for the first time raised money from the market for which we have to pay back over Rs 100 crore annually. Toll is one of the sources of income.It's a great achievement for this government that within the next two years, the MSRDC's funds will touch Rs 8,000 crore, even more than the entire state's budget of some Rs 7,000 crore.Even the so-called car lobby, the Western India Automobile Association (WIAA), has opposed imposition of toll.n I can't understand why, considering they will benefit so much out of it. We have calculated annual fuel savings of over Rs 1,000 crore.By December, 50 flyovers will be completed. Then you can travel from Dahisar to Churchgate in half an hour and fromPanvel and Thane to CST in 40 minutes.Each motorist will save fuel worth Rs 60 each day, besides time on account of the flyovers, and all we're asking him for is Rs 40.The world over, pay-and-use facilities are the norm. If you want good facilities like expressways and flyovers, you have to be prepared to pay for them. As I said earlier, no government can afford to invest so much money in infrastructure.While the motorist who drives in from Vashi or Thane into the city has to shell out money each time he enters the city, motorists who live within the city can blithely use all the flyovers without paying a penny. Why this discrimination?n IT is simply not practical to have toll stations to uniformly tax all the motorists within the city or even on every flyover. There would be chaos, defeating the very purpose of the flyovers. What we feel is that with the increase in prices of milk and vegetables, which will increase due to toll, people in the city will be paying indirectly.What about the recentcontroversy and protests at toll plazas?n THERE is no controversy. All bicycles, two wheelers, tractors, autos, school buses, and tankers have been exempted from paying toll. The .25 per cent of the people we are taking the toll from are trucks, trailers, luxury buses and motor cars. For cars again we have made concessions, they will have to pay only Rs 500 for a monthly pass as against Rs 1,200 normally. We are also considering making this single monthly pass applicable at all toll stations.What will be the impact of these concessions on the flyover projects?n I can only make the dish sweet if you give me the sugar. We may have to drop or reconsider some of our projects. For instance I had a project for concretising all the roads in Mumbai, which I may have to rethink.
