Motorists to pay toll for using ORR, soon

Motorists may soon have to pay for traveling on the Chennai Outer Ring Road with the Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) gearing up to appoint a service agency for toll collection at four toll booths set up on the Vandalur-Minjur stretch.

With the completion of phase-2 of road works between Nemilichery and Minjur, the ORR was thrown open for public transportation in February this year. However, so far the toll collection did not commence for want of approval from the State government.

A senior TNRDC official said the tender for appointing a service agency for toll collection in all four toll plazas at CORR was invited even as the State government’s final nod is expected at any time. “We have received the toll road notification recently. So we’ve begun the preparatory work for the toll collection for which we expect the government approval soon,” the official added.

Four toll gates have been set up at Varadharajapuram (6 km) near Mudichur, Kolappancheri (21.8 km) near Nazarathpet, Palavedu (30.85 km) near Nemilicheri and Chinnamullaivoyal (56.70 km) village located four km from Minjur.

The CORR project was implemented in two phases. Phase-1 from Vandalur to Nemilichery, at a length of 29.65 km, was built at a cost of Rs 1,081 crore. 

It was open to the public in 2014. The 30.5 km phase-2 from Nemilichery to Minjur was constructed for Rs 1,075 crore and inaugurated in February this year.