CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) is awaiting for the State government’s approval to commence fee collection from four toll booths set up at Vandalur – Minjur outer ring road (ORR).
With the completion of phase II 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 has not started on this road since the approval is pending from the state government.
The project was executed at the cost of Rs. 1,081 crores. TNRDC, a wing of the State highways department, has built the road using PPP model and the work was carried out on a design, build, finance,
operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.
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 user fee at first toll gate (Varadharajapuram) to be calculated from Vandalur to Nazarathpet (19.65 km) stretch and the second (Kolappancheri) for the road up to Nemilichery (29.65 km).
The third toll booth (Palavedu) will collect user fee for a section of road from Nemilichery to Padiyanallur (47.90 km) and the last toll gate (Chinnamullaivoyal) will collect user fee for the road from
Padiyanallur to Minjur (60.15 km).
A senior official from TNRDC said, “Toll notification has been finalised and sent to the State government. Once, gazette notification issued, user fee will be collected,”
The 60.5 km stretch connects Vandalur to Tambaram – Tindivanam NH-45 (new no NH 32) with Minjur on the Thiruvottiyur Ponneri Panchetti (TPP) road.
The six lane ORR passes through NH-4 (new no NH 48) at Nazarathpet, NH-205 at Nemilichery and Padiyanallur at NH-5 (new no NH 16).
The road is expected to facilitate seamless movement for vehicles ferrying goods to and fro between Tamil Nadu and neighbhouring States.
Vehicles coming from Delta and Southern districts on Chennai – Tiruchy NH can enter into Chennai – Kolkata NH via ORR thereby skipping Chennai bypass road.
Besides decongesting Chennai bypass road, the ORR also provided road access for over 200 villages located along the corridor.
The ORR which was proposed as part of the Chennai Master Plan I which was sanctioned in 1998 and delayed for nearly two decades. The first phase of the 29.65 km road between Vandalur and Nemilichery was completed in August 2014. The works on the 30.5 km stretch under phase II were delayed owing to issues in land acquisition.
The TNRDC manages the toll plazas at Siruseri and Perungudi in Rajiv Gandhi salai, Uthandi in East Coast Road and two satellite toll gates between Medavakkam and Akkarai.
The Chennai city has tolls at Paranur in Chennai – Tiruchy NH, Sriperumbudur in Chennai – Bengaluru, Nallur in Chennai – Tada NH, and Pattaraiperumbudur in Chennai – Tirupathi NH that are being
administered by NHAI. In addition, 26 km Chennai bypass has two toll gates at Vanagaram and Surapattu.