Convince Gadkari to end toll charges on 10-metre roads, Velu redirects plea of BJP member Nainar

CHENNAI: Public Works and Highways Minister EV Velu on Tuesday asked BJP’s floor leader Nainar Nagendran to urge his party’s Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari to stop collecting toll charges after widening a 7-metre road into a 10-metre road.

Responding to BJP floor leader Nainar Nagendran’s demand for removing the Alangulam toll plaza in Tirunelveli district, Minister Velu said that the National Highway Authority of India takes up the State Highways, which are seven metres wide, into the National Highway by merely widening 1.5 metres on both sides of the road. “After making the road 10 m wide, the NHAI sets up a toll plaza and starts collecting user fees from the vehicles. You should tell Union Minister Gadkari not to collect toll charges on such roads,” minister EV Velu told BJP leader Nainar Nagendran.

In a response to PMK legislator S Sivakumar’s demand to speed up the four-laning of the Tindivanam-Krishnagiri National Highways, Velu said that the NHAI has started the preparation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for widening the road only after the State government wrote to it. “The Tamil Nadu government has started widening of the road. We told them that, if they (Centre) are not willing to take up widening of the two-lane road, for which toll charges are being collected, they should hand it over it to State Highways Department. Only such a strong statement that the National Highways Department started the DPR preparation for the project,” he said.

Responding to another question, minister EV Velu stated that the State government had written to the Union Government and met Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in person to discuss collection of toll even after expiry of licence to operate them.