Assembly passes Road Fund Bill

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 20.

The Assembly today passed the Kerala Road Fund Bill, 2001, the objective of which is to encourage private investments in transport facility projects like roads, bridges and tunnels.

The bill envisages the setting up of a fund for channelising investments on such projects. It also provides for the constitution of a board for the administration of this fund and for monitoring/supervising the activities financed from the fund. The Bill is to replace an ordinance of the same title promulgated earlier this year.

The Public Works Minister, Dr. M. K. Muneer, who moved the Bill as reported by the Subject Committee of the House, conceded as many as 25 amendments brought by members belonging to both the ruling front and the Opposition. As many as 350 amendments were moved by the members during the clause-by-clause discussion on the Bill.

The Opposition was of the view that the Minister's concessions related only to inconsequential points raised by the members during today's discussion. When it came to substantive issues like those relating to the extent of Government equity in the projects envisaged under the Bill, the Minister did not yield to the suggestions of the Opposition members.

This provoked protests from the Opposition just before the Bill was put to vote. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. V.S. Achuthanandan, said the idea of encouraging private participation in transport facility projects was quite in order. But it was entirely another thing to surrender all Government controls on how the investor made use of the opportunity afforded by the new law.

He said the experience of the Mattancherry bridge, constructed with private participation under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement, should be taken as a lesson to avoid pitfalls in future. There had been all round protest on the issue that the toll imposed on vehicles using the project was too heavy.

If such projects became a norm all over the State, the vehicle users would have to bear the brunt of indiscriminate levy of tolls wherever they go. ``They might end up mortgaging their vehicles while traveling,'' said Mr. Achuthanandan.

Mr. K.P. Rajendran, CPI, said certain provisions like the one empowering the investor or his employees to seize vehicles for the offence of using the transport facility without paying the toll would have far reaching consequences.

Dr. Muneer, in his reply, assured the House the Bill had only the best intentions and its provisions were more less the same as in the Ordinance promulgated during the LDF regime.

He said the toll on using such projects would be fixed only on the basis of the ``willingness to pay'', which would be decided through a process that would be acceptable to the public. He said private participation in transport facility projects had become an absolute necessity in view of the Government's resource limitations and the heavy investment urgently required for improving transport infrastructure in the State.

``The objective of the Bill is to encourage private investments. Therefore, there is no point in increasing the funded assistance to projects from a maximum level of 49 per cent, as provided for in the Bill,'' he said.

As per the Bill, the assistance by the Government or a statutory body to a concessionaire taking up a transport facility project can be in the form of equity (up to a maximum of 49 per cent), subsidy (not exceeding 25 per cent), loans, guarantees, conferment of land development rights, escrow cover, exemptions from taxes and levies etc.

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Section  : Southern States
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