With the city set to experience more traffic diversions as part of the Kochi Metro Rail project in the coming days, moves are afoot to scrap the toll at Pullepady ROB.
District Collector P I Sheikh Pareeth told ‘City Express’, that the scrapping of the toll at Pullepady would be a major agenda at the review meeting with the government as well as KMRL officials on October 31.
The district administration has already forwarded a request in this regard to the government. “Prior to the Metro work, there were discussions to scrap the toll as vehicles would have to be diverted through the Pullepady bridge when the Metro Rail work gains momentum. Requests are also pouring in from various residents associations in its favour. The scrapping of the Pullepady toll has been mooted as a major agenda during the next meeting,” the Collector said.
The bridge was constructed by the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK) in 2010 at an estimated cost of `12 crore. The RBDCK started collecting toll after the bridge was commissioned and the total period of the toll collection is 15 years.
So far, the RBDCK has been able to generate less than `2 lakh as toll, officials with the RBDCK said. The present contractors, whose contract period between 2012-2013 concludes on November 10, have not been able to generate the specified amount of `55 lakh as per the agreement.
“When the contract was taken through open bid, we had quoted a collection of `55 lakh as per the agreement in 2012-2013. So far, we have not been able to generate the specified toll as there has been a visible decrease in the number of vehicles using the RoB. We are facing a loss of `16 lakh,” the contract workers said.
RBDCK officials admit that the number of vehicles using the Pullepady ROB has come down by nearly 80 per cent. They attribute it to the commissioning of the A L Jacob ROB which is a better option for motorists as it is toll -free.
Vehicle users can easily access the city through the bridge. Initially, the toll collection at the Pullepady ROB was `24,000, but the average collection per day has come down to `5,000 now.
Speaking on whether the RBDCK will be scrapping the toll, officials said that that they have not received any information in this regard so far. “
The current contract period gets over by November 10. We have already floated new tenders for the next contract period. If the government decides to scrap the toll collection here, we will have to abide by it. However, the government will have to bear huge losses if it is decided so,” the officials said.