Rules for new toll policy under formulation: Baalu

Islamabad -- Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry today assumed charge of his office, a day after his reinstatement through a landmark judgment of 13-member bench of the apex court.

A large number of lawyers reached to the official residence of the chief justice here and congratulated him.

After his reinstatement, the national flag and the flag of the Supreme Court of Pakistan were hoisted at the residence of the chief justice here.

The chief justice in his brief comment on the verdict said: "I am thankful to Almighty Allah."

He signed a notification to assume his office, which says: "Consequent upon the decision of the 13-member bench, I have assumed the charge of my office."

After the verdict on Friday, the people were overwhelmed with jubilation. Lawyers and other people embraced each other and distributed sweets. The workers of political parties were also took to streets. The lawyers in Lahore and other cities of Punjab were overwhelmed with jubilation.

The Peshsawar High Court Bar Association organized a torch-bearing procession. In Sindh lawyers and other people welcome enthusiastically the landmark judgment, offered thanksgiving prayers and distributed sweets.

On Saturday, the apex court‘s senior judge, Mr. Justice Rana Bhagwan Das called on Chaudhry at his residence and offered his felicitations. Both also exchanged views on different matters.

Justice Rana Bhagwan Das was officiating as the Acting Chief Justice following the filing of the March 9 presidential reference against Chaudhry. (ANI)

New Delhi, July 21 (ANI): Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu today said that the new toll policy has been finalised by the Centre and discussion are on for the formulation of new toll rules.

Speaking at the conference of chief secretaries on ‘Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Infrastructure‘ organized by the Planning Commission here, Baalu said the Government has decided to shift to Electronic Toll Collection (ETC).

Chairing a session on the Highways, Baalu said: "For checking the cases of overloading, weigh-in motion bridges are being installed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The Minister disclosed that for real time traffic data collection, the Department of Road Transport and Highways is going to install 320 Automatic Traffic Counter-cum-Classifiers (ATCC) in the first stage at certain stretches of National Highways.

Finally, all the National Highways would be covered with ATCC, he added.

Baalu pointed out that the technology for user fee collection needs to be upgraded at the earliest, in a time bound manner and the concepts like shadow tolling and congestion charging need to be examined for adoption in the urban environment.

The Minister opined that regulatory mechanism and speedy dispute resolution mechanism need to be formulated early and said that non-compliance or default for the payment fee needs to be controlled through an effective enforcement mechanism.

Referring to the issue of public-private partnership in infrastructure, Baalu said that the lack of proper dissemination of project-related information and adequate knowledge of local and geographical issues, are generally the reason that very few global investors are aware of the project opportunities in India.

Relatively, low size of projects and a lack of appropriate tie-ups with Indian partners also appear to be a major deterrent, he said.

These issues require to be adequately addressed to encourage global investors, the Minister added.

In order to address the concerns of private investors on loss of revenue due to absence of any control on access, Baalu said that we should give more emphasis on development of Expressways with control on access which would also provide the desired level of mobility for increased economic activity.

He also informed that some of the State Governments such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have also adopted the Public-Private Partnership approach for development of roads in their States. (ANI)