Pay toll up to Rs 109 on Outer Ring Road from today

CHENNAI: Motorists using the 60.15 km Chennai Outer Ring Road connecting Vandalur with Minjur will have to pay toll charges from Monday with the State Highway Department notifying the toll rates.

Four plazas have come up on Varadarajapuram, Kolappanchery near Nazrethpet, Palavedu near Nemilicheri, and Periyamullavoyal. The toll rates for the 60 km trip between Vandalur and Minjur in a car would cost Rs 109 while a bus/truck will be charged Rs 368. On the highway, the shortest trip is between Padiyanallur and Minjur which is 14 km and would cost Rs 17 for a car while Rs 58 for a bus/truck.

The toll rates vary according to the distance travelled by motorists in the access-controlled greenfield highway which connects GST road at Vandalur, Chennai Bengaluru highway at Nazrethpet, Chennai-Tirupathi Highway at Nemilicheri, Chennai Kolkata Highway at Padiyanallur and Thiruvottiyur-Ponneri-Pancheti road at Minjur. “We will start collecting user fees from January 10. All three lanes on either side of the road have FASTag facilities and one cash lane at the end. If the vehicle is not fitted with FASTag or without valid or functional one entering the FASTag lane, would have to pay two times the toll rate, ” a Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) official said, noting that approximately 30,000 vehicles, particularly heavy vehicles to the ports, are using the highway.

The official said that local residents could make use of the service roads for travelling. “If they enter the main carriageway, they have to pay a user fee, ” the official added.

The CORR project was implemented in two phases. Phase-I is from Vandalur to Nemilichery to a length of 29.65 km and was built at the cost of Rs 1,081 crore and opened in 2014. Phase-II (30.5 km) from Nemilichery to Minjur was constructed at a cost of Rs 1,075 crore and inaugurated in February this year. TNRDC built the road on the basis of ‘Design, Build, Finance, Operation and Transfer’’ (DBFOT) under Public-Private Partnership (PPP), through an internationally competitive bidding process.

The notification of toll charges has come months after the government wrote to NHAI to stop collecting user fees for highways located within city limits.

4 plazas have come up on Varadarajapuram, Kolappanchery, Palavedu near Nemilicheri, and Periyamullavoyal