SN Jn, Irumbanam toll netted government G22.43-crore profit

The two toll booths at SN Junction and Irumbanam here -- which will pass into history on November 1 as the state government has decided to do away with the toll collection there-- have earned the Road
SN Junction toll booth at Tripunithura | Express
SN Junction toll booth at Tripunithura | Express

KOCHI: The two toll booths at SN Junction and Irumbanam here -- which will pass into history on November 1 as the state government has decided to do away with the toll collection there-- have earned the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) a whopping Rs 22.43 crore as profit, four times its cost, in 11 years since toll collection began.

An RTI query to the RBCK revealed that Rs 28.65 crore had been collected as user fee since 2005-2016.
“According to the RTI reply, the total cost of construction of the bridge was Rs 10.96 cr but the Road Fund Board, District Administration and Kochi Refinery had jointly chipped in around Rs 4.72 crore, which was non-refundable. Hence, the actual cost of the construction would come to only  Rs 6.9 core. Nonetheless, all these years the RBDCK was fleecing the people of Tripunithura as they have netted a profit of Rs 22.43 crore,” said V P Prasad, chairman, Tripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents Association (TRURA), whose protracted efforts going back several years finally came to fruitition with the government decision to scrap the toll.

Meanwhile, a source revealed that the RBDCK had also raked in huge amount of money by granting permission to lay underground cables and through sale of ad space.

“The amount will be come to around Rs 8.2 core. If we deduct this amount from the total construction cost of Rs 10.96 cr for these two bridges it will be around Rs 2.76 cr and the agencies also provided Rs 4.74 cr. It is quite evident from the fact that the the toll collection was a cash cow for the RBDCK,” he said .
However, the RBDCK officials pointed out that the  Corporation had to realise the money spent on the construction of the Seaport-Airport road and the toll fee was collected to include this as well.

“If you consider our cost for SN Junction, Irumbanam and Seaport-Airport, the total cost would be Rs 34.39 crore as with the completion of these two bridges the Seaport-Airport road  was clubbed with the toll. This means, we have actually incurred a loss of several crore in the project,” said a top official when contacted.

Further, he said the RBDCK took loans from several financial institutions, including HUDCO to fund the project

“For meeting the expenses, we had taken loan and the interest alone for the same came to around Rs 22 crore. For us, this project has resulted in a huge loss and with the government deciding to scrap the toll collection, we are going to suffer more in financial terms,” said the official. It was on Tuesday that Transport Minister A K Saseendran made a statement in the Assembly regarding the government decision to scrap the toll collection at the two junctions. Last month, the government had also scrapped the toll collection at Chithrappuzha.

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