In the first phase, NHAI would invite bidders for 24 toll plazas and the winner would be selected on best revenue sharing deal.
Rights of toll collection in 96 toll plazas on highways under the National Highways Authority of India will be offered to the private sector.
The number of toll plazas, which would be auctioned constitutes for more than 65 per cent (146 toll plazas) of all toll plazas run by NHAI. The annual toll collected from all these toll plazas is Rs 1,700 crore (Rs 17 billion).
In the first phase, NHAI would invite bidders for 24 toll plazas across the country and the winner would be selected on the best revenue sharing deal the bidder offers to the authority.
The toll plazas have been contracted to ex-servicemen based on recommendations of the directorate general of resettlement in the ministry of defence. DGR is the nodal agency for finding employment for ex-servicemen. Under the contract, ex-servicemen get a fixed 10 per cent of the toll collected as their commission.
The decision to change the rules was made because of reports of pilferage and irregularities in standards being followed by the toll collection agencies.
"We have decided to auction the toll plazas after pilferage was reported and also because the toll collecting agencies were violating rules," said a senior NHAI official. "We have found gross irregularities in that," he added.
The revenue earned by NHAI from the toll plazas is expected to increase in the process, according to the official, as they expect the private parties to offer a larger portion of the revenue to NHAI.
The authority has also prepared a list of eight toll plazas -- seven on National Highway 2 and one on NH-25 -- that will be put up for bidding after the first phase is complete. They are said to be poorly managed under the DGR agencies.
NHAI builds roads on Build, Operate, Transfer (toll), BOT (annuity) and Engineering Procurement and Construction mode.
In BOT (toll), where the developer builds the road, toll is collected by the developer for a period of time it is allowed to during which it recovers its investment in that project. But in BOT (annuity) and EPC, NHAI has the right to collect the toll and these projects are called public-funded projects.
