Conduct audit of all toll plazas in the country: PMK

CHENNAI: PMK president Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday sought an audit of all the toll plazas across the country as there is no transparency in the user fee collections.

In a statement, Anbumani condemned the NHAI for collecting excess user fees from road users to the tune of Rs 132 crore from five toll plazas in South India including Rs 28 crore from Paranur toll plaza in Chengalpet.

He noted that according to the amended national highway amended rules if a four-lane is being widened into a six-lane or eight-lane, only 75 per cent of the existing user fee should be collected.

"Despite the eight laning works taken up between Tambaram and Paranur in two places, they continued to collect full user fees from August 2018 to March 2021 amounting to Rs 6.54 crore excess fees. They also collected toll charges for 1954 built river bridge in violation of the rules to the tune of Rs 22 crore, " he said.

PMK's Rajya Sabha MP said that it did not surprise as the NHAI has been looting the road users in whatever ways in the name of toll charges.

"The user fees collected were shown in various accounts. For example, the cost of constructing the section of the national highway between Chengalpattu and Tindivanam is only Rs.536 crore. But in thirteen and a half years, Rs.1098 crores of user fees has been collected, and the investment made for it should have been taken. But the NHAI claims it spends Rs 682 crore on maintenance works and has recovered only Rs 416 crore till now. The project's expenditure along with interest has gone up to Rs 770 crore and it has to recover Rs 354 crore. If calculated in this way, no road project in India cannot recover the investment for a foreseeable period of time, " he said, seeking an audit of all the toll plazas in the country to find out how many have recovered the investments.