KOCHI: Public Works Minister V K Ebrahim Kunju has said that the state government has no authority to cancel toll collection on the national highways as it is the Union Government which has to take decision in this regard.
The minister was speaking to reporters after the review meeting of PWD Department held here on Thursday.
The Minister said the state government had cancelled several toll collection and had given compensation to contractors.
“The toll collection on national highways is managed by the Centre under Indian Tolls Act. All the Central projects are set under this Act since 1991. The state governments have signed a pact to support the Centre in collecting the toll for their projects. So we have to give support for the toll collection on national highways,” Ebrahim Kunju said.
The minister said that one of the major projects of the PWD is monorail in Kozhikode which will be done with the assistance of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The project office of the Kozhikode monorail will be inaugurated on Friday.
Another major project taken up by the Public Works Department is State Road Improvement Project (SRIP) in which 1200 km of roads mainly the highways and district roads will be enhanced to international standards.
He said that 283 km of roads will soon be renovated under the first phase of Kerala State Transport Project.
PWD principal secretary P H Kurian said the department is preparing an asset database to monitor every project and constructed roads. The work is nearing completion and will be digitalised in few months. Kurian also said the PWD engineers will now have to undertake road management works in their areas. He promised to rectify the technical issues in e-tendering projects.
Mohammed Hanish, MD, RBDCK, T Babu Raj, PWD chief engineer and J S Leena, chief engineer, National Highways, were among those who took part in the meeting.
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