After the three-year contract period with the previous toll-collecting agency — MEP RGSL Toll Bridge Pvt Ltd — on Bandra Worli Sea Link was extended for six months on January 30, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has now decided to sell the tolling rights for a longer tenure on the lines of Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The authority has recently issued a tender to sell tolling rights on the sea link to any interested agency for a period of 19 years starting July 3, 2020 till March 31, 2039, against the expected bid value of Rs 2,940 crore.
Confirming this, Joint Managing Director (II) of MSRDC Vijay Waghmare said: “The amount generated by selling the tolling rights will be used for big-ticket infrastructure projects like Versova Bandra Sea Link. For the missing link, we raised funds from the Mumbai-Pune tolling rights, similarly money has been borrowed for the Samruddhi corridor.”
Another official from the MSRDC explained that about Rs 12 crore is the monthly revenue earning through toll collection on the BWSL. When this is multiplied for 19 years it means about Rs 2,736 crore is the revenue earned from toll alone.
MEPL-RGSL Toll Bridge Pvt Ltd has been collecting toll for the 5.6-km Sea Link and maintaining it since 2009. According to the government, the authority can collect toll until 2039.
The firms interested to buy the BWSL tolling rights should be able to give a bank guarantee of Rs 30 crore as per the bid condition norms. The eight-lane sea link was opened to the traffic in 2009.
It was constructed to provide an additional outlet from the Island city into the suburbs.
Besides this, the authority has also floated tender for the Mumbai-Pune Expressway for a period of 13 years. This paper had reported how the authority received lukewarm response from any other agency except the previous contractor Ideal Road Builders (ITB) Infrastructure which was collecting toll from the last 16 years on Expressway. As no other agency has shown interest, according to an MSRDC official, IRB is likely to bag the tolling rights on the Expressway once again. Currently, the authority has appointed Sahakar Global to collect toll as a temporary arrangement on Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
