HYDERABAD: Ahead of increasing the toll rates on the Outer Ring Road (ORR ) stretch by up to 50 per cent, the State government wants Hyderabad Growth Corridor Limited (HGCL), a wing of HMDA, to create awareness among the people on the reasons behind the hike.
Officials of HMDA/HGCL, in a recent meeting with the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao, put forward the proposal and requested him to allow HMDA to increase the toll.
Toll rates on expressways and National Highways in other cities are significantly higher than ORR, they said. KTR reportedly favoured the proposal but before increasing the rates, he wanted the HMDA/ HGCL to create awareness among vehicle users. While the hike for the base rates put up by National Highway Authority of India are for brownfield highways, where the existing highways are being upgraded from two lane to either four or six lane. NHAI allows for a 50 per cent hike over the base rates for that section.
Expressways built by other states, which have typically been greenfield projects and have no central funding, have adopted toll rates that are significantly different from NHAI norms.
Maintaining an ORR is significantly higher than NHs or even bypasses along the NHs. The officials said that when compared to NHs, ORR differs significantly.
The NHAI constructs four lane roads which provide free access to all side roads without any access control, adopt open tolling on their roads where toll charges are collected based on category of vehicle irrespective of the length of travel. Meanwhile, ORR charges toll corresponding to the distance travelled on the road.