Toll plaza at Vikkiravandi starts functioning

VILLUPURAM: A toll plaza at Vikkiravandi on the Tindivanam-Ulundurpet Expressway started functioning on Thursday, even as commuters and truck operators voiced concern over the high toll rates.

All vehicles, except certain exempted categories, crossing this point will have to pay the stipulated toll.

Quoting S.S. Bhaskaran, Project Director (Villupuram), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a statement released from the Collectorate said that toll collection had been entrusted to a private concern, GMR.
Toll structure

The toll structure is as follows:

Car, van and jeep, single trip: Rs 50, return trip: Rs 75 (return journey should be made within 24 hours), monthly : Rs 1,509; light commercial vehicles and mini buses: Rs 88, Rs 132, Rs 2,641 respectively; lorries and buses: Rs 176, Rs 264, Rs 5,282; multi-axle vehicles: Rs 283, Rs 424, Rs 8,490.

School buses would have to pay a monthly toll of Rs 1,000 upon production of registration certificate and written applications from the headmaster concerned.

Vehicles in which the President, the Vice-President, Governors, Lieutenant Governors, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Assembly Speaker, or State and Central Ministers were travelling, and those decorated with military honours such as Param Vir Chakra to Surya Chakra, ambulances, fire tenders, and police, government and defence vehicles were exempted.

MPs and MLAs would be allowed free passage. Several sections of commuters have pointed out that at certain other toll plazas, the rates were just one-third of what was being collected at Vikkiravandi.

For instance, the amount charged at one of the toll plazas elsewhere in Tamil Nadu is as follows: car, van, jeep – Rs 17, Rs 30 and Rs 1,300; light commercial vehicles – Rs 28, Rs 50 and Rs 1,750; buses – Rs 44, Rs 80 and Rs 2,800; trucks – Rs 66, Rs 120 and Rs 4,200 and for the multiple axle vehicles – Rs 132, Rs 240 and Rs 8,500.