BackDND flyway to remain toll free for now
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the order which stopped collection of toll paid by commuters
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New Delhi: DND flyway connecting New Delhi and Noida will remain toll free for now as the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the order which stopped collection of toll paid by commuters.
The court has asked the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to submit a report on the actual cost of the project within four weeks.
“We require the CAG to verify the cost of the project," said justice Nageswara Rao.
In the previous hearing, the concessionaire had contested the high court finding that the company had already recovered the money it had invested in the project and said that it was open to an independent audit by any agency, including the CAG.
The public interest litigation filed in 2012 had challenged an order passed by the Allahabad high court which stopped collection of toll tax paid by commuters on DND flyway connecting Delhi and Noida. The apex court had refused to stay the order.
On 26 October, justices Arun Tandon and Sunita Agrawal of the Allahabad high court, in a 121-page ruling, had said the levy of toll on the 9.2-km eight-lane expressway was “unfair and unjust" and that the users and commuters were being illegally taxed.
The court also declared the clause allowing Noida Toll Bridge to collect toll as inoperative and bad in law. It said that the method of calculating the total project cost of the expressway was arbitrary and against public policy.
Noida Toll Bridge had recovered Rs810.18 crore from toll income since the commencement of the expressway till 31 March 2014. Approximately Rs300 crore more was realized through user fee or toll between 1 April 2014 and 30 September 2016, the high court noted.
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