SIT or ACB probe into highway contract likely : The Times of India

Mumbai: A probe by a special investigation team (SIT) or the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) is on the cards into the allotment of a Rs 1,220-crore contract for improving the SionPanvel highway .

Public works minister Chandrakant Patil confirmed to TOI that the government has taken note of a complaint by RTI activist Praveen Wategaonkar.“Prima facie, there is substance in the issues raised.Either we will set up an SIT or ask the ACB to probe into the alleged irregularities. In either case, a decision will be taken in a day or two,“ Patil said.

In a 12-page letter addressed to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Patil, Wategaonkar has urged that the ACB should investigate the allotment of the contract to IVRCL and Kakade Infrastructures, and pending its outcome, suspend the notification allowing toll to be collected at the Kamothe plaza and ensure that no payments are made to the contractor even for exemption granted to light motor vehicles.

Wategaonkar has brought to the notice of the CM and Patil a notification issued by the public works department on September 27, 2002, about the Vashi toll booth. It says toll to be collected at the booth is meant for the entire SionPanvel stretch leading to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway till 2027.

The activist has also pointed out that as per the toll policy of 2000, the minimum distance between two toll booths on a road should be 35 km. As per the latest policy , of July 2014, not on y the distance between two toll plazas should be 45 km, but also the distance between two toll booths should not be less than 20 km where two different toll projects are undertaken.“The distance between the Vashi and Kamothe toll plazas on Sion-Panvel highway is 16 km, which is in clear violation of the `no two toll booths within 35km' policy and the Vashi toll notification of 2002,“ Wategaonkar said.

He has submitted that as per a decision of the cabinet infrastructure committee, in case a new pro ect needs to be undertaken, toll is to be col ected at the existing toll booth at Vashi. TOI sent an email to Kakade Infra head Sanjay Kakade, who responded by saying, “I am in Dubai... I will reply only after I return to Mumbai on Monday night or Tuesday .“