Private bus operators in Dakshina Kannada have decided not to pay toll at the toll booths of Navayuga Udupi Tollway Private Ltd. (NUTPL) on National Highway 66 at Talapady and Hejmady from Wednesday.
It is to protest against NUTPL for failing to complete National Highway No 66 widening project between Talapady and Kundapur and to complete work on service roads.
Announcing this here on Tuesday, Dilraj Alva, president, Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators Association, and Durga Prasad Hegde, vice-president, Canara Bus Operators Association, said that people in general will join them in not paying toll at the two booths.
Mr. Alva said that each bus will have to pay ₹ 35,000 per month as fee at the Talapady booth. About 30 buses will have to pay them just to reach a bus stand a few metres away from the toll booth and return.
At the meeting with NHAI and NUTPL, Member of Parliament and BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel said that he will back the decision by motorists not to pay toll at Hejmady and Talapady.
Mr. Kateel said that as the company has not met the deadlines given to complete the project, he felt that denial of revenue to it is the only way to make it realise the hardships of people.
When Ramesh Y., director, NUTPL, and Shishu Mohan, project director, NHAI Mangaluru Project Office, urged the MP to reconsider his stand as it would push the concessionaire into loss, Mr. Kateel did not agree with them to change his stand.
Later, Mr. Kateel told presspersons that a decision on merging the toll plaza at Surathkal with the one at Hejmady will be taken in a meeting with NHAI in New Delhi on January 6. Other issues relating to FasTAG and giving concession to daily service buses will also be discussed.
Earlier, a fact finding committee of the Congress, led by K. Harish Kumar, Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee president, visited Pumpwell to inspect the flyover project.
