The TS government should cancel the right to collect toll on the Outer Ring Road given to a private company as it would cause substantial loss to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), senior BJP leader Gudur Narayana Reddy said on Wednesday.
In a media statement, he said that the decision of the government is like killing the goose that lays golden eggs and has all the signs of a scam.
He said the government gave the right to collect tolls to a Mumbai-based company at less than half the price that could be earned in the next three decades.
He said that the government gave the right to collect toll on ORR as per the Toll Operate and Transfer formula to the private company at the rate of Rs 7,380 crore for 30 years but estimates show that about Rs 17,000 crore can be earned in 30 years.
He said that money changed hands while accepting the bid of the private company and the hands of the BRS were behind it. He said the whole process looks like a big scam.
He said the government gave the right to collect tolls on the Outer Ring Road to a private company as per the TOT formula for Rs 7,380 crore for three decades. It means that the company would make a profit of around Rs 10,000 crore in the next three decades.
He said that while governments are supposed to give toll collection rights only for two to four years in this case it is 30 years. The BRS government which would be out of power in five months has usurped the rights of the next six governments. “It is nothing but an unjustifiable act of the BRS,” Gudur said.
“The Outer Ring Road is not the property of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to take decisions as he likes. He does not have any right to take decisions that has a future impact,” he said.
Gudur said that at present the estimated toll collection from the ORR is about Rs 540 crore per annum. It is likely to go up to Rs 650 crore per annum by 2033. The average revenue per decade would be Rs 5,200 crore.
But as the government accepted the low price offered by the Mumbai-based company the revenue would be less than Rs 2,500 crore per decade. This would be a big loss to the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, he said.
Gudur made it clear that the BRS government did not have any right to entrust projects to private companies at throwaway prices.
He wanted to know while the BRS has been criticising the Centre for selling public sector companies, how it can give away the toll collection right on ORR to a private company for a song.
