THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite protests and alert by local police on Monday, toll collection at the newly opened toll plaza at Thiruvallam on the NH-66 bypass stretch from Kazhakootam to Karode will begin on Wednesday. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced that the toll collection would begin on Wednesday even after the local police have written to NHAI not to start the toll collection due to protests likely to be triggered. The letter sent by Thiruvallam police pointed out that any move to collect toll fee may invite law and order issues at the spot.
As per the letter, the police pointed out that there is a propaganda that people need to pay a heavy toll fee and the political parties took this as an opportunity to politicise the issue. Hence it is better to start toll collection only after a high-level meeting with the government.
On Monday, the Congress party workers staged a sit-in on the national highway near the toll plaza in protest against the move to start toll collection without opening up the entire 43-kilometre NH stretch from Kazhakootam to Karode for traffic. At present, the traffic is allowed till Kovalam. The highway is blocked from Kovalam to Mukkola even after its construction is complete due to the pending work of the 16.3-kilometre stretch from Mukkola to Karode, near Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
“We will start the toll collection anyway. We will decide in the coming days on what needs to be done if there is any disruption,” said P Pradeep, NHAI project director. On Saturday, the NHAI had also released the toll rate for each type of vehicles. Anilkumar Shukla was selected the contractor for toll collection.
Earlier, the motorists had flayed the move to start toll collection without opening the entire stretch to traffic. They said the toll collection cannot be started until the road from Mukkola to Kaorde is open for traffic.
Moreover there is every likelihood of motorists tending to skip the toll gate reaching Vazhamuttom, near Kovalam. A feasibility study by the National Transport and Research Centre (NATPAC) had also pointed out the possibility of people using the road via Thiruvallam, Pachalloor and Vazhamuttom to skip the toll payment. However, NHAI had proceeded with the move to set up the toll gate at Thiruvallam.
The NHAI had initially planned to set up a toll plaza at Akkulam but was later shifted to Thiruvallam at the request of the state government that setting up a toll gate at the cyber corridor of the city, will affect the commutation of techies and daily commuters.