Amid closure cries, 2 more toll plazas to come up in State

Motorists who are at the receiving end of rising fuel prices have more bitter news. They will have to shell out more on National Highways in Tamil Nadu with two more toll gates coming up. This is amidst demands for closure of fleecing toll plazas.

Tamil Nadu has a total of 48 toll plazas on the NH across the State. On Tiruchy-Chidambaram NH 227, two new plazas have come up at Kallakudi on the Tiruchy-Kallagam section and Managethi on Kallagam to Meensuruthi section.

Toll plaza at Managethi was opened on May 27 while Kallakudi is likely to start the collection of user fees from June 1, said NHAI sources.

NHAI took up four-laning of Tiruchy-Chidambaram section of NH 227 for Rs 2,952 crore under Bharatmala Pariyojana. The 134-km-long highway widening work was taken up under three packages — Tiruchy-Kallagam section (38.70 km), Kallagam-Meensuruti section (59.74 km) and Meensuruti-Chidambaram section (31.35 km). NHAI has completed work on the Tiruchy-Kallagam section and Kallagam-Meensuruti section while work on the Meensuruti-Chidambaram section was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 26 when he visited Chennai to launch a slew of projects.

NHAI sources said another toll plaza would come up at Kattumannarkoil for the Meensuruti-Chidambaram section.

S Yuvaraj, president, of Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners’ Association, said the state highways minister had announced on the floor of the Assembly last year that 31 out of the 48 toll plazas in the State whose tenure has expired would be shut but it was not yet done.

“The Centre also announced that it would close down the toll plazas located within 60 km of each other in three months. However, till now no action was taken,” he said, adding the Centre also did not act on the State demand for the closure of five toll gates on Chennai-Tiruchy, Chennai-Bengaluru, and Chennai bypass.