Toll collection at the Seaport-Airport road for using bridges on the river Chithrapuzha, Irimpanam rail and the rail overbridge at S.N. Junction has curiously shown a steady decline.
The toll collection was over Rs.3 crore for the first three years (2007 to 2010) and for 2010-11 it was Rs.3.36 crore. However, in 2011-12 the collection fell to Rs.2.71 crore and in 2012-13 the lowest collection of Rs.2.62 crore was registered.
Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) provided these details to Tripunithura Rajanagari Union of Residents’ Association (TRURA) in reply to an RTI application.
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V.P. Prasad, president of TRURA, said no one seemed bothered to find out why there was a decline though traffic through the routes has increased significantly.
The Seaport-Airport Road did not have constant traffic flow five years ago, but still the toll collection then was higher than that in the past two years, he said.
The bridge at S.N. Junction was opened in 2004 while toll collection began in 2005. According to the RBDCK, user fee would be collected for 15 years.
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It also said the user fee levied was not based on the cost of construction. Seaport-Airport Road along with the three bridges for which user fee is being collected was built at a cost of about Rs.22 crore. The collection from user fee so far is Rs.20.49 crore.
Though toll collection at Tripunithura had faced protests initially, RBDCK maintains that there have been no requests to waive the toll for the residents of the area so far.