Cost recovered long ago, but toll plazas on highways in Tamil Nadu to stay in perpetuity
Even stretches where the cost has been recovered will continue to have toll plazas for several decades
CHENNAI: The money spent to build these highways in Tamil Nadu has been recouped several years ago through toll collection from the public. However, with the National Highways Authority of India treating the stretches as captive cash cows by deploying fancy acronyms like ToT and InvIT, there is no end to the burden of toll for decades to come.
Despite objections from all major political parties in the State except for the BJP, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has accelerated the monetisation of highway stretches in Tamil Nadu, including cases where the expenditure has already been collected.
Consider this: The Tiruchy-Tovarankurichi-Madurai section of NH 38 was built at a cost of Rs 419 crore. However, since the toll collection started in 2010, the Boothakudi and Chittampatti toll plazas have together collected Rs 1,202 crore as of November last year. Closer home for Chennaiites is the case of Chennai Bypass, which was built at an expenditure of Rs 446 crore. As of March, the toll plazas at Vanagaram and Surapattu have already collected Rs 1,341 crore.
This toll collection, which several critics have flayed as exploitation of the public in the name of infrastructure development, is not going to end in the near future. The national authority has already invited tenders to monetise three highway stretches in Tamil Nadu, totalling 228 km, under the toll-operate-transfer (ToT) mode, while the Chennai Bypass is under consideration.
The three sections that are going to be monetised are the four-lane 124.840 km Tiruchy-Tovarankurichi-Madurai section of NH 38, including the Boothakudi and Chittampatti toll plazas; Vazhavanthan Kottai toll plaza on the Tiruchy-Thanjavur section of NH 83; and the Eliyarpathi, Pudurpandiapuram, and Vagalkulam toll plazas on the Madurai – Thoothukudi section of NH 38.
It should be noted that of the highway stretches to be monetised, the project cost has already been recovered in two out of the three stretches – or five out of the six toll plazas. The only one where the cost has not been recovered is the Vagaikulam toll plaza, which has so far collected Rs 188 crore out of the Rs 349 crore expenditure.
Monetising highway stretches to collect toll in perpetuity was unacceptable, said S Yuvaraj, president, Tamil Nadu State Sand Lorry Owners' Federation, noting that the Tamil Nadu government had demanded shutting down 32 toll plazas where the project cost has already been recovered. “But the NHAI has not only refused to close them but has even done away with the NH Fees Rules that mandate reduction of the user fees to 40 per cent after the end of the concession period," he said.
Incidentally, the Vanagaram and Surapattu toll plazas on Chennai Bypass are among the five user fee plazas sought to be closed by the State government, as they are located within the municipal corporation limits.
The NHAI is adopting two modes for monetising highway stretches under the toll-operate-transfer (ToT) and Investment Trust (InvIT). The national body has already monetised the 243-km Madurai to Kanniyakumari Section of NH-7, with the toll plazas at Kappalur, Etturvattum, Salaipudur, and Nanguneri for 30 years starting from October 20, 2020.
When asked, NHAI officials said the monetisation proposals are done at the headquarters in New Delhi. "The monetisation will not have any impact on motorists as toll would be collected anyway, " the official added.
Meanwhile, even as it is opposition toll collection on national highways, the State government on its part has proposed to monetise the 60.5 km stretch of Chennai Outer Ring Road under the ToT mode to generate revenue of Rs 1,800 crore.
