Contractors Overcharging At NHA Toll Plazas At Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road.

ISLAMABAD -- Contractors employed to run four toll plazas on Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road (N-135) are involved in overcharging of toll rates but instead of cancelling their contracts, the National Highway AuAthority is only issuing warning letters.

The four toll plazas located at FateAhpur, Chowk Sarwar Shaheed, KhanAsar and Mianwali were awarded to M/s Ghous Bakhsh Buzdar, M/s IK EnterAprises and M/s Pervaiz Ahmed Bhatti respectively for next three years from 1st July 2022.

Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road was a provincial highway and recently it was federalised and given under the control of NHA. It was decided at the time of its federalisation that the same toll as apAplicable on provincial highways would be charged by NHA till the improveAment of the said road.

Later, the NHA board also approved that the same provincial rates would be taken from the commuters till imAprovement of the road network.

It is pertinent to mention that NHA toll rates are about 50 percent highAer than the rates applicable on provinAcial highways with respect to differAent categories of vehicles. For instance, NHA is charging Rs250 for articulatAed trucks but provincial highways are charging Rs150 in the same category.

When the aforementioned toll plaAzas were presented for bidding, over a dozen contractors were in the running to win the contract but they were conAfused about the toll rates and the same ambiguity was also highlighted by a contractor in the pre-bid meeting.

The NHA officials categorically clarAified in the approved minutes of the meeting that the provincial rates, which were already applicable on the route, would be collected by the sucAcessful bidder.

According to the sources, most of the potential bidders made their financial calculations according to the provinAcial rates but three bidders clouted and gave very high bids. Resultantly, they won the contract to operate these four toll plazas, which was astonishing for the rest of the players.

However, the actual 'under the table' settlement surfaced when the successAful contractors started to charge high toll rates on these toll plazas and mysAteriously the field office...