MUMBAI, Oct. 13 -- A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court, challenging the legality of levying toll on heavy vehicles entering Mumbai and seeking suspension of toll collection till the petition is pending. The Chief Secretary and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which manages arterial roads in the city and collects toll via a contractor, have been named as respondents in the PIL filed by Pravin Wategaonkar, an advocate. At present, only heavy vehicles entering Mumbai through five entry points - Dahisar, LBS Road-Mulund, Eastern Express Highway-Mulund, Airoli Creek Bridge, and Vashi - need to pay toll tax. Light motors vehicles were charged Rs.45 to Rs.75 while entering Mumbai before they were exempted from toll payment in October 2024. The continued levying of toll on heavy vehicles was "mala fide, arbitrary and illegal" as the as there was no clarity on the total amount that the MSRDC was authorised to collect in the first place in lieu of constructing flyovers and maintaining the Eastern and the Western Express Highways, Sion-Panvel Highway and Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, the PIL said. Wategaonkar said had filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in October 2023, seeking details about the Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) agreement between the MSRDC and the state government regarding construction of flyovers and maintenance of the arterial roads, and the total capital outlay for the same. The MSRDC, however, did not provide a copy of the BOT agreement, and instead provided documents from the year 2010, which pertained to the Cabinet Infrastructure Committee's approval of the tendering process for toll collection being undertaken then, the PIL mentioned. The court must enquire into the "legality, validity and the propriety" of not only the 2002 notification which authorised MSRDC to collect toll, but also the June 2025 Government Resolution (GR), allowing the MSRDC to continue collecting toll from heavy vehicles at least till September 17, 2029, to compensate for the loss of revenue owing to toll exemption for light motor vehicles, the PIL said....