Get ready to pay toll for 25 yrs on Outer Ring Road

CHENNAI: Motorists using the 60.15-km Chennai Outer Ring Road (CORR) will have to pay toll charges for the next 25 years, as the Tamil Nadu government has floated tenders to monetise the six-lane corridor under a public-private partnership model.

The Tamil Nadu State Highways Authority (TANSHA), under the State Highways Department, has adopted the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) Toll-Operate-Transfer (TOT) model to lease the road to private concessionaires. The road, which runs from Vandalur in the south to Minjur in the north via Nemilichery, was built at a public cost of Rs 2,160 crore.

The project has been listed under the State’s Asset Monetisation Pipeline with an estimated valuation of Rs 2,000 crore. Under the TOT model, the selected private operator will make a one-time upfront payment to the government and recover the investment through toll collection over 25 years.

Toll plazas are already operational at four locations — Varadharajapuram, Kolappancheri, Palavedu, and Chinnamulaivoyal — will continue under private control until 2050.

While the government sees this as a way to unlock capital for future infrastructure projects, the move has drawn criticism from motorists and civil society groups, who question the fairness of imposing long-term tolls on a road built entirely using public funds.

Many motorists say they will be forced to pay repeatedly for infrastructure already funded by taxpayers. “While road maintenance is important, charging users for 25 years for a government-built road is excessive,” said S Meenakshi, a daily commuter from Avadi.

S Yuvaraj, president of the Tamil Nadu State Sand Lorry Owners’ Federation, said that after opposing NHAI’s monetisation of highways in Tamil Nadu, it was unacceptable for the State government to follow suit. “We have been demanding that NHAI close toll plazas where the project cost has been recovered. But now the State government is going to allow a private concessionaire to collect toll charges on the CORR for the next 25 years. This is unacceptable, and we will protest such a move if the government goes ahead with the proposal,” he said.

Traffic projections in the bid documents suggest that vehicle volumes on the corridor will rise sharply over the concession period. The average daily traffic currently ranges from 20,000 to 31,000 vehicles across the various toll plazas at present, which is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 5.5%.

Some stretches could see more than 70,000 vehicles a day by 2050. For example, the Varadharajapuram plaza, which now handles around 31,000 vehicles daily, is projected to exceed 70,000 in 25 years, while the Palavedu plaza is expected to handle over 55,000 vehicles a day, compared to 26,000 now.