28 crore excess fee collected at Paranur toll plaza, finds CAG

CHENNAI: Loopholes in the implementation of the toll collection rules by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have resulted in road users paying excess user fees and also losses incurred by the toll plazas in some cases, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found.

The CAG’s audit report on toll operations of NHAI in Southern India said that due to the non-implementation of amended toll fee rules, which mandate the collection of only 75 per cent of the user fee applicable without any annual revision while upgrading the four-lane highway to six-lane till completion of the project, NHAI has collected user fee of Rs 132.05 crore from motorists leading to an undue burden on road users.

The excess user fees were collected from five projects in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.

In the case of Paranur public-funded toll plaza on the Tambaram to Tindivanam stretch of National Highway 32 where the user fee is collected by the NHAI, expansion of existing four-lane to eight-lane in two sections commenced in July 2018 (Section I - Irumbilyur to Vandalur, 2.3 km) and in March 2019 (Section II - Vandalur to Guduvanchery, 5.3 km).

“Section I was completed in March 2020 and work was in progress (March 2021) in Section II. NHAI did not reduce the toll fee to 75 per cent in respect of these sections resulting in an excess collection of toll amounting to Rs 6.54 crore from August 2018 to March 2021.” Subsequent to the audit observation, the toll was reduced to 75 per cent in April 2021 in respect of Section II.

In another case, the CAG found that despite the NH Fee Rules specifying that no toll can be levied on a bridge built before September 1956, NHAI collected a toll at Paranur public-funded toll plaza, a bridge that was constructed in 1954. It said NHAI collected an excess toll fee of Rs 22 crore from road users during 2017-2018 to 2020-2021.↔ Continued on P2