``Toll as a concept has to continue, only the rates will be reduced after the committee's decision,'' MSRDC Managing Director R C Sinha told Express Newsline. He said the suspension of toll collection until September 15 would not affect the MSRDC's programme to construct 55 flyovers and bridges as well as the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

The MSRDC had initially hoped to return the money it had borrowed from the market with the Rs 115 crore from toll collection every month. The amount was to be paid into an Escrow account which would later be given back to the lenders. ``However, as principals of all these amounts have different maturities ranging from six to 12 years, we won't pay back the borrowed amounts until much later,'' Sinha said. With the expected slashing of toll rates tohalf of the existing rates, this seems highly unlikely. The MSRDC was formed after bonds for Rs 500 crore were oversubscribed, netting a whopping Rs 1,180 crore. HUDCO, Indian Railways, BEST and other lending institutions offered financial assistance, with Canara bank acting as trustee.

The government plans to recover its investment with a three-pronged programme. The first is drastically reduced rates for toll, as decided by the committee headed by the transport secretary, Suresh Chandra. The government is also to levy a cess on every new vehicle registered in the city as well as a cess on petrol and diesel which will be directly paid by oil companies to the MSRDC.

For the Mumbai-Pune Expressway due to be commissioned on January 26 next year, the corporation will be charging a toll of Rs 80 per car and Rs 200 per truck and bus.

Earlier, the government had stipulated a 30-year time limit for toll collection, which meant the MSRDC would have to collect toll for either 30 years or till the cost ofbuilding all the bridges and flyovers in a certain corridor was recovered. So while the cost of certain corridors would have been paid back in 24 years, now the deadline will have to be extended.

The MSRDC's calculations have documented savings of Rs 82 per vehicle on account of the bridges and flyovers in the city, thus arriving at the existing rates of Rs 20 a car, Rs 50 a bus and Rs 100 a truck-trailer.

Meanwhile, readying for a reimposition of toll, the corporation has awarded a Rs 3 crore contract to Philips India for supplying pre-loaded toll cards. These contactless cards, similar to the BEST smart cards, will save time at toll stations. The cards are to be issued to motorists as monthly passes in October this year.

The option was considered after plans to instal a sophisticated remote toll collection system with windscreen-mounted devices in Singapore was found to cost 300 million US dollars, the cost of the MSRDC's entire flyover programme.