On Vellore-T’malai road pay double toll

VELLORE: Car and bus owners are incensed over double toll payment for single use of Vellore–Tiruvannamalai Highway in toll plazas at Kannamangalam and Tiruvannamalai, sources revealed.

Toll plazas of staggered variety are installed in both locations not very long ago. A person travelling from Vellore pays at Kannaamangalam and also before entering Tiruvannamalai, which amounts to double payment of toll for single road use.

Asked about this, Vellore Bus Operators’ Association president D Govindarajan lamented, “It is absolute robbery. Though rules say that toll plazas should be installed on new roads, we wonder how the government allowed these plazas on an already existing road.”

Asked if association members’ buses were provided multiple trip passes, he said, “Yes, we got this after a bitter fight as initially they wanted buses to pay for each trip. Even today we have to take multiple passes at both ends which is double payment for one trip.”

Former Anaicut MLA M Kalaiarasu, when asked about this, said, “In 2014-15 when the Pallikonda toll plaza came up on the national highway, I laid a by-pass road. Erecting toll plazas amounts to placing an unnecessary burden on the common man. When road tax is part of the amount collected from fuel payments, why toll plazas are necessary? he asked.

When DT Next enquired a person at the Kannamangalam toll plaza, he accepted that double payment is being collected. Toll plaza manager Senthil Kumar when asked why a person travelling from Vellore to Tiruvannamalai should pay twice for one trip, he had no answer.

A solution would be to use both Fastag and vehicle number (for those without Fastag) to be scanned at one toll plaza, sources said.