Farmers Movement Archive

Loss of ₹1.8 cr a day at toll booths due to farmers' protest: Nitin Gadkari

Public funded toll plazas at highways are facing an estimated loss of approximately ₹1.8 crore per day due to farmers' protests, the Centre informed Parliament on Thursday.Toll collection across Punjab and Haryana and Delhi NCR region has been suspended since December due to the ongoing protests against the three farm laws, which cleared by Parliament last year.In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha by BJP MP PC Gaddigouda, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said: "Due to farmers’ protest, some of the fee plazas are non-operational, thereby the NHAI is unable to collect user fee from the road users. In case of public funded fee plazas, an estimated remittance loss is approximately ₹1.8 crore per day."According to credit rating agency ICRA, the farmers’ agitation has seen nearly ₹600 crore loss in toll collections in states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi-NCR with ₹9300 crore of debt at risk, thus far.ICRA Ratings, in its report issued last month, had said that around 52 toll plazas [includes both public funded and BOT (built, operate and transfer)] for national highways (NHs) operated in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi-NCR have been directly or indirectly affected due to farmers’ agitation.Apart from this, the revenue loss in the state highways projects in these regions will be an additional burden, it noted.“The average toll collection per day at these plazas is estimated at ₹7 crore. Until January 26, 2021, these national highway toll plazas would have incurred an estimated revenue loss of around ₹560 crore out of which ₹410 crore is estimated for BOT Concessionaires. Out of the ₹9,300 crore of impacted rated debt, ₹8550 crore of debt is at a high risk of default while ₹750 crore is rated as investment grade with low to moderate risk of default. Some of these entities also have debt service reserves (DSRAs) of around three months in place to use for such exigencies; however, this would have been completely used up by now," said Rajeshwar Burla, Vice President, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.The inability to collect toll for a continuous period of 24 hours and exceeding an aggregate period of seven days in an accounting year due to agitations/ strikes would be considered an indirect political event under the force majeure clause, ICRA noted."In such cases, with the costs attributable to such events, beyond the insurance cover, one half of such excess amount is likely to be reimbursed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), covering around 25% of the loss of revenue incurred by the affected projects. As per ICRA estimates, this would amount to around Rs100 crore until January 26, 2021. Further, the concession period shall be extended in proportion to the loss of fee on a daily basis," it added.

Hindustan Times

11-02-2021

India