The Maharashtra government announced a complete toll waiver for light motor vehicles at all five toll booths entering Mumbai ahead of the upcoming state Assembly polls, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Monday. The toll waiver will come into effect from midnight.

Eknath Shinde made the announcement during a Maharashtra Cabinet meeting held by him ahead of the Assembly polls slated to be held at the year-end.

The toll waiver is expected to bring relief to people travelling in and out of Mumbai ahead of Diwali. Commuters will now be able to travel without paying tolls at any of the five booths - Dahisar, LBS Road-Mulund, Eastern Express Highway-Mulund, Airoli Creek Bridge and Vashi.

Light motor vehicles are those which are primarily designed for carrying passengers or goods. Vehicles in this category include cars, jeeps, vans and small trucks. More than 6 lakh vehicles cross Mumbai daily, of which 80 per cent of them are light motor vehicles.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, under its then minister Nitin Gadkari, has constructed 55 flyovers in Mumbai. Toll booths were first erected at the entrances of the city to recover the cost of these flyovers.

As soon as the construction of the bridges reached its final stage, a tender was floated in 1999 for the construction of toll booths. In 2002, all five toll booths were commissioned. After that, toll collection started at Mumbai's toll booths.

According to activists, the maintenance money and costs were recovered 10 years ago, but the government continued to collect the toll.

Last year, the Maharashtra government extended the toll tax recovery for three more years till 2027 and it was expecting around Rs 11,000 crore.

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and some leaders from the Shiv Sena (both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde factions) had been demanding a toll waiver on all Mumbai booths.

Recently, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray also demanded toll waiver on all entry points of Mumbai.

Source: India Today