MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently ordered the removal of Shenbagampettai toll plaza on National Highway 36 in Sivaganga district, as another toll plaza established much earlier at Lembalakudi is situated 23 km from it on the same highway.
A bench of justices GR Swaminathan and M Jothiraman passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by a man, SPS Ilangoo, against an order passed by a single judge in his plea seeking removal of the Shenbagampettai toll plaza in 2017. Since the single judge had instead ordered shifting of the Lembalakudi toll plaza while retaining the one in Shenbagampettai, Ilangoo filed an appeal. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was aggrieved by the single judge's order and had preferred an appeal against it.
The judges observed that the two toll plazas were situated on the old NH 210 and 226, which were redrawn and renumbered as NH 36 in 2010. The Lembalakudi toll plaza was installed in 2011, and the toll plaza at Shenbagampettai was established only in 2017, they pointed out.
While they agreed with the single judge's stand that this violates Rule 8(2) of the National Highway (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, which states that a toll plaza of the same section and in the same direction shall not be established within a distance of 60 km, they opined that only the Shenbagampettai toll plaza should be removed and not Lembalakudi, which was established earlier.