- Use unopened service road to get back on Expressway
- NHAI cites revenue loss of Rs. 65 lakh per day
Mysore/Mysuru: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has a new headache just a day after introducing a toll fee on the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta stretch of the Mysuru-Bengaluru 10-lane Expressway. Motorists coming from Bengaluru side are taking an abrupt left turn near Kaniminike Toll Plaza to the service road to avoid paying the user fee.
Only 10 percent of the motorists heading from Bengaluru to Mysuru are paying the toll and other vehicles including trucks, buses, goods vehicles, tippers and light motor vehicles are avoiding fees by swerving into the service road just before the Toll Booth near Kaniminike.
Expressway Project Director B.T. Sridhar told Star of Mysore this morning that the motorists are taking the abrupt left turn after a flyover near Christ University.
“After coming from Kumbalagodu flyover, commuters are taking a left turn just before the Kaniminike Toll Plaza. They are entering the service road to avoid paying the toll fee. After using the service road for some distance, the motorists are returning to the main carriageway and this has been the trend since today morning,” Project Director Sridhar said.
The NHAI had laid barricades on the service road as there is an issue with the land acquisition for about 100 metres. “Someone removed the barricades early this morning, giving access from the main carriageway to the service road and almost all vehicles are taking this road to avoid paying the toll. This particular stretch of the service road could not be completed following a stay order from the Court,” he said.
“The Court stay has been vacated now and we will complete the work shortly. Before that the unauthorised opening in the road will be closed in a day or two as it is against the law of the land,” Sridhar added.
While only 10 percent of the vehicles are racing the Toll Plaza, all the other vehicles are moving on the unauthorised stretch. “This is causing a revenue loss and the toll collecting agency has to pay Rs. 65 lakh per day to the NHAI. As there is no collection, the contractor is in a soup and has asked the NHAI for exemptions,” he said and urged the motorists to pay toll as per guidelines since the Expressway is benefiting them.
Indians are best when it comes to beating around the bush.
@John Dominic
Your English is not good.
It is not beating around the bush, but it is circumventing the rule.
“Only 10 percent of the motorists heading from Bengaluru to Mysuru are paying the toll and other vehicles including trucks, buses, goods vehicles, tippers and light motor vehicles are avoiding fees by swerving into the service road just before the Toll Booth near Kaniminike”
Excellent, this is after Narendra Modi inaugurated this Tipu Highway, baosting about India! His sidekicks Bommai and Simha were all grinning thinking that what a wonderful project this Tipu Highway is!
This circumventing traffic will keep increasing and more vehicles use this route to avoid paying toll fee.
This Tipu Highway, is bound to be a disaster, when the railtrack between Mysore-Bangalore was not doubled to run more express trains with schedules like non-stop between the cities, which would have been better, but restricting the number of lanes to just 4 .
Only those criminals who currently distribute the smuggled gold to Kerala from the UAE, through the Wayanad-Nanjangud corridor is increasingly using this Tipu Highway. As the direct flight from Abu Dhabi to Mysore gets underway, after Mysore airport is ready to receive jet airliners, more gold will be smuggled into Mysore and more of them will be distributed to towns along this Tipu Highway. There is also increased activities of Hawaala money operations , which will multiply after Mysore airport expansion.
This Tipu Highway is already the preferred choice for criminal gangs, who can afford the toll fee.
Mr Nair, gold smuggling does not need an expressway. Sufficient gold can be slipped into a pocket and can be trafficked by riding even a donkey to Bangalore. And pray why do smugglers need an airport at Mysore to begin smuggling? Are they too lazy to take a flight to Kannur and ride a bus from there?
Now let’s do hawala. I hope you understand that Hawala does not need actual cash movement. Hawala needs a phone and chits of paper. Neither an airport or a highway is required.
In a hurry to inaugurate it before election in order to gain publicity, BJP and other authorities have simply messed it up. In what could have been a really game-changing infrastructure to brag about, the concerned authorities have ended up with eggs on their face. Multiple dead lines missed, local villager’s issues, flooding, bottlenecks at both ends, back and forth on tolls, exorbitant toll, inauguration before 100% completion of work, missing service road links, and now this sub-standard work being masqueraded as “regular maintenance”!
Ideally there shouldn’t be any toll fee for a tax payers. Govt. is collecting so much data, they must come out with some pla. To give the benefit back to the tax payers. After all they have made this and all express ways from tax payers money.
In any such big project of this size,there are bound to be some operational problems of some days after the project completion. The comments appearing here are also not on logical grounds but sometimes comical and highly partisan based on political divide. This is a national project built out of public money and yes built during the BKP regime. But for that to name the highway as Tipu Highway etc euphemistically is rather weird. Everything will fall into place. Just wait. Even NHAI should not be reacting for everything as though it is an adversary