The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will wind up its toll gate at Surathkal on NH 66 within a month, a senior official of the NHAI said here on Tuesday.
Speaking at the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee meeting, H. S. Linge Gowda, Project Director, NHAI, Mangaluru, said that the toll gate at Surathkal will be merged with the toll plaza at Hejamady on the same highway.
“The process of merger has begun. It will be over in a month,” the official told the meeting presided over by Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, who reviewed the progress of Centrally sponsored projects.
It may be mentioned here that the Tollgate Virodhi Horata Samiti, Surathkal, had been demanding to vacate it on the grounds that the NHAI cannot collect the users’ fee by having two toll plazas on the same highway within a distance of less than 10 km, though the two plazas belonged to two separate highway projects.
Referring to the ongoing four-lane project between Adda Hole and B.C. Road on NH 75, Mr. Gowda told the meeting that the widening of the 15 km stretch between Adda Hole and Periyashanthi is likely to be over by December, 2023. The 48 km stretch between Periyashanthi and B.C. Road is likely to be over by March, 2024.
So far 12 % of works between Periyashanthi and B.C. Road have been completed, he said, adding that the potholes on the stretch between Adda Hole and B.C. Road will be filled up within a month after rains stopped. The contractors of the two projects will have to fill up the potholes, he said.
The official said that it will require one more year to build the overpass at Kalladkka as it will be a six-lane overpass.
