Thiruvananthapuram: More than a month has passed since the new toll plaza operation in Thiruvallam has been affected; Now the National Highway Authority (NHAI) faces new problems.
The agency that has won a contract to operate the Toll Plaza in Kazhakootam – Karode NH Bypass Road is reported to threaten NHAI officials to end the contract if protests are not immediately resolved.
The source close to the NHAI office here says the contract to operate the Toll Plaza is given for a period of six months.
More than a month has passed and they have not been able to start the toll because of the opposition from the local population and various political parties.
Further delays in the initial operation will produce agents who suffer big losses because they will not get enough time to redeem the amount of losses suffered for the last 40 days.
In accordance with the contract, the agency is required to send the number of Rs 1.40 lakh from the total collection every day to NHAI.
Although the new Toll Plaza opened on August 18, NHAI could not collect one penny so far because of the strong protest from the local political party.
Agitators accused that the toll rate for various categories of vehicles here is very high unrealistic.
In addition, locals who live near the toll plaza are also needed to pay toll, even though they have the option to utilize the discount rate.
The main opinion of the agitator is that local riders who live in a radius of 20 km from the highway must be given free permits in the toll road.
Although NHAI filed a suggestion to provide free permits to villagers within five km of Plaza Toll, this advice was rejected by the agitators.
The meeting chaired by the district collector to resolve this problem a month ago was concluded without any solution.
In addition to the victims who seemed to be decent, the locals may have to pay for their routine journey, the demonstrators, including various political fields also questioned Nhai’s decision to start gathering toll before the new national highway stretch works were completed.
The construction of a new stretch of national highway is divided into two phases.