The Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TNCC&I) has appealed to the Union government to immediately direct the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to stop the annual fee hike at all the toll plazas, which comes into effect on April 1.
The NHAI has issued a circular notifying that vehicle user fees at 29 toll plazas in Tamil Nadu would be increased from ₹5 to ₹55 from April 1 onwards, said TN Chamber of Commerce and Industry president N. Jagatheesan here on Friday.
In a statement, he said that the NHAI has set up 55 toll plazas in Tamil Nadu. Of them, the user fee is revised every April 1 for 29 toll plazas and the rest of the plazas undergo user fee revision every September 1.
The Union Government and the NHAI‘s move has come as a shock to the road users as they have already expressed their dissatisfaction with the existing vehicle user fee which is very high.
As a sequel, prices of essential commodities like vegetables, fruits, grains, paddy, edible oil, milk and building material and non-essential commodities would move upwards heavily due to toll fee hike as they are used to transport all kinds of goods.
HC directive not implemented
The High Court had ordered that toll plazas should not be formed within 60 km distance. The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had announced in Parliament that such toll plazas would be removed. While it was expected that steps would be taken to remove 16 toll plazas in Tamil Nadu, formed within a distance of 60 km, the hike in toll rates has shocked the people even more, Mr. Jagatheesan said.
The Union Minister had also assured that fees would be reduced to 60% at nine toll plazas which include the Tambaram–Tindivanam Highway (Paranur, Athur), Chennai Bye Pass Road (Vanagaram, Suraputtu), Chennai–Tada Highway (Nallur), Chennai–Bengaluru Highway (Sriperumpudur, Chennasamudram) and Madurai–Tiruchi Highway (Boothakudi, Chittampatti) during the next revision starting in April, since the capital cost had been recovered.
There are 566 toll plazas on the 29,666 km National Highways in India. Of these, Tamil Nadu alone has the highest number of 55 toll plazas. A whopping 64.50 lakh vehicles passed through these tollgates and ₹135 crore was collected daily.
There is a rule that toll charges should be reduced when the number of vehicles increased passing through tollgates. None of the toll contractors that took the lease complied with it, the statement said.
Existing roads are not properly maintained either by the NHAI or by the contractors. Besides, the road contractor should spend 15% of the toll collection for the annual maintenance. But this is not happening and regular road users are facing severe hardships due to poor maintenance of roads.
About 4.50 lakh lorry trucks are operated on hire across Tamil Nadu. While a majority of them were unable to function properly due to price increase in diesel, oil, battery, tyres, etc. about 1 lakh trucks were impounded due to non-payment of bank instalments. About 50,000 lorries have been rendered dormant due to repairs. As a result, the people involved directly and indirectly were hit.
Life-time road tax is paid to the government while purchase on every new vehicle. Therefore, it was unfair to charge toll every time at the toll plazas..
Therefore, on behalf of trade and industry the TN Chamber urged the Union government to take steps to remove the toll plazas after the stipulated time frame of the road and also to roll back the annual toll fee hike.
