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Small
Bridges to be Excluded from Toll
Trivandrum, India, Jul. 16 2002 (INS News) --.The
State Minister for Public Works, M.K. Muneer, told
the state Assembly,that the Government will amend
the Toll Act to exclude small bridges from the purview
of the Act.
Answering
to a debate on the demand for Public Works, the
Minister said toll was at present being collected
on bridges costing more than Rs. 35 lakhs. This
limit would be raised to Rs. 1 crore.
Ministerr
said two-wheelers would be fully exempted from paying
the toll. The amendment would also specify that
the toll should not be collected beyond 15 years.
He said the National Transport Planning and Automation
Centre (Natpac) had submitted its interim report
on the proposed hill highway. It would be possible
to take up the highway on receipt of the final report.
The study on the proposed coastal highway had been
completed. It would be built if there were takers
for the construction of the highway under the `Build-Operate-and-Transfer'
scheme. The work on the proposed express highway
would be taken up only after a rehabilitation and
resettlement plan was implemented. Minister said
Though
there would be an access control to the highway,
overbridges and underpasses would be built for people
to move across the highway. A team of quality control
would be set up with field officers and mobile units
to keep a tag on quality. He said the current budget
allocation was not at all sufficient to carry out
repair works. Hence the difficulty in maintaining
the roads well.
The
Kochi Refineries would soon be producing 65,000
tonnes of rubber-modified bitumen to meet the entire
requirement of the State. The Centre, he said, had
issued orders specifying the use of rubber-modified
bitumen for national highways. He added
The
Minister said new MLA roads could be taken up only
after the ongoing works on such roads are completed.
After the Minister's reply, the House passed the
demand (Rs. 483.57 crores) for 87 votes against
31.
--
Sam
Asharaf
- South Asia Correspondent in Trivandrum, India
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e-mail editor@insnews.org
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