As the Government increasingly builds highways on public private partnership (PPP) basis, the Road Transport and Highways Minister, Dr. C.P. Joshi, says that he favours a regulator in the sector to take care of quality of service provided to the highway users.
With users paying tolls to use highways, their expectation for certain quality of service parameters such as lower waiting time is bound to go up.
“I feel a regulator should be there. Users – who are paying for using a highway - should have an option to complain if they are not getting good service,” Dr Joshi told
“We are thinking of various options. There is no final decision on an institutional mechanism,” said Dr Joshi.
Currently, there is lack of a concrete, implementable institutional framework for addressing user complaints.
Feedback
Since early 2011, NHAI has provided a link on an online social networking site – facebook – where users can provide feedback.
The feedback or complaints are usually forwarded to the officials concerned.
But, the concessionaires ( according to the concession agreement) are not required to provide inputs.
NHAI also has an online feedback mechanism on its Web site. But, to implement specific complaints, the contracts with the operators need to be strengthened.
The need to have a strong regulatory mechanism to address users concern is getting louder in various Government agencies.
Recently, Mr B.K. Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission, stated that there is a need to take care of “consumers”.
He was speaking in a FICCI conference on public-private partnership in the infrastructure space.
RAILWAYS
In a related move, the Railway Minister, Mr Dinesh Trivedi also said that he favours a regulatory body in the railway space.
The regulator can function as an advisor on railway fares as well as take calls on public-private partnership issues.
“There is lot of room (for a regulatory authority). If you want to de-politicise, you must have some kind of regulator which deals with the fare and freight and quality,” Mr Trivedi had stated.
He added that he was in favour of regulatory body for the Railways. But for a good measure, he added, “it all depends on Parliament and the Government. If they feel then it can be done.”