Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Sep 1: Navayuga group, which has been given the contract for widening of national highway stretch in the district, seems to be getting a sense of fulfillment at making people to wait for long at Hejamady tollgate and then made to negotiate bumpy stretches of national highway.

Long lines of vehicles on both sides of the tollgate were witnessed on the evening of Thursday at Hejamady tollgate. Although a Supreme Court order says that vehicles which are made to wait for over three minutes at the tollgate need not pay toll charges, gates here are opened for allowing onward movement of vehicles only after they pay toll charges, even when the vehicles have waited for ten to fifteen minutes in the queue.

It is gathered that three of the computers installed at this tollgate have become dysfunctional. More often than not, the remaining systems too turn too slow. As only two out of five gates are used to collect toll charges, it takes longer for the vehicles to move through this tollgate.

Many a time the employees working at the tollgate encounter protests, angry words, and dressing down at the hands of aggressive drivers who are in a hurry. The employees say that they get monthly salary of Rs 9,000, and many a time, drivers of heavy vehicles who lose patience after waiting at the tollgates, go without paying the charges, saying that they had waited for more than three minutes. But the officials of Navayuga group go through CCTV footage and deduct such charges from the salary payable to employees.

Most of the officers of Navayuga group speak Telugu. Many a time, they are available atop the tollgate building but they try not to appear in front of the general public by shirking from their responsibility. Because such officers, computers at tollgate are not being repaired. Santosh Kumar Shetty from Padubidri, who happens to be one of the persons aggrieved by the delay caused at this tollgate, has requested the district administration to intervene and take stern steps.

Vehicles which pay toll charges cannot hope to cover the delay by moving faster on the highway because they then have to negotiate through bumpy and rough Padubidri stretch of the highway which is yet to be developed. Although most of the buildings in Padubdiri downtown have been demolished, highway four-lane work has not yet been started there. Therefore, vehicles continue to struggle to pass through this town. At some stretches of the highway, one side of the road is found blocked for traffic weeks on end in the name of repairs, giving rise to accidents often.