Bantwal: New toll plaza at Brahmarakootlu - What you need to pay
Mounesh Vishwakarma
Pics: Kishore Peraje
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (EP)
Bantwal, Dec 7: The new toll plaza on the national highway at Brahmarakootlu has received mixed response from the public. While there is disappointment over having to pay twice the toll than earlier, the good news is that the toll collection at Panemangalore has been done away with.
The toll plaza at Brahmarakootlu has started functioning despite several protests, and initially there was uproar over collection of toll at the new point without putting a cork on the one at Panemangalore. Usually toll is collected after the completion of road or bridge but here, the toll is being collected when 20% of the work is still pending.
It is said that the obstacles in the beginning of the work are responsible for the slow progress of the work. Work of 17.5 kilometers on national highway 17 (now NH-66) from Suratklal to NITK and 19.5 kilometers on national highway 48 (now NH-75) was taken up in June 2005. The work consists of 95 gutters, 15 box gutters, 7 flyovers and 5 mini bridges.
The government had given the contract to Ircon with a deadline of 30 months to complete the work and it should have been over by December, 2007. In the end out of the seven flyovers, only five were to be constructed, but none of work is complete yet.
It is ironic that four-laning work near the toll plaza itself has remained pending. The works of service road, drainages, fencing at Thumbay, bus stand at Brahmarakootlu and the four-lane approach road measuring 150 meters has remained pending due to disputes.
As the land and building owners challenged the land acquisition in the court, the work got delayed. The toll collection that should have started several years ago has started now. A notice from the highway authority regarding the toll that had to be collected has awakened officials of national highway authority and made them to start collecting toll even before the work was completed.
The toll plaza has announced the toll that it will collect. The rates will be in effect till March 31, 2014. Vehicles registered in Dakshina Kannada will be charged separate rates:
- Cars, jeeps, vans and light vehicles will be charged at Rs 20 for one way and Rs 25 if they return on the same day. If they travel 50 times a month, the monthly pass will cost Rs 585. Commercial vehicles registered in the district will be charged Rs 10.
- Light commercial vehicles, light goods vehicles and mini buses will be charged Rs 30 for one way and Rs 40 if they return on the same day. If they travel 50 times a month, the monthly pass will cost Rs 945. Such commercial vehicles registered in the district will be charged Rs 15 per trip.
- Bus and trucks with two axles will be charged Rs 60 for one way and Rs 90 if they return on the same day. If they travel fifty times a month their monthly pass will cost Rs 1,975. The vehicles registered in the district will be charged Rs 30.
- Three axel commercial vehicles will be charged Rs 65 for one way and Rs 95 if they return on the same day and the monthly pass that permits 50 trips will cost Rs 2,155. Commercial vehicles registered in the district will be charged at the rate of Rs 30.
- Large construction vehicles, vehicles that are used for digging of land and multi axle vehicles (from four to six axles) will be charged at the rate of Rs 95 for one way and Rs 140 if they return on the same day. Their monthly pass will cost Rs 3100. Such vehicles registered in the district will be charged Rs 45 per trip.
- Extra long vehicles with more than 7 axels will be charged Rs 115 one way and Rs 170 if it returns on the same day. Their monthly pass will cost Rs 3,775. Vehicles registered in the district will be charged Rs 55 per trip.
Local non-commercial vehicles will be charged Rs 215 per month for the year 2013-14.