Toll collection on highways to resume today

Deepak.Karthik@timesgroup.com

Trichy:20.04.2020

Following instructions from the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to resume toll collection from Monday. Toll plazas across the state have taken up precautionary measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while collecting toll from road users.

There are a total of 48 toll plazas in Tamil Nadu, 22 in Madurai region and 26 in Chennai region.

Truck owners have hinted at a possible hike in freight charge to transport food and essential commodities during the lockdown. They said they had not hiked the freight charge so far under lockdown as toll fee was suspended.

Usually, trucks unload their consignments at destinations and return with another load. Ever since the lockdown was imposed, closure of industries and other commercial establishments had denied them such return loads. Most of the trucks carrying commodities to Chennai from Trichy have been coming back without any load. However, the routine business loss did not impact the truck owners much as their expenses so far covered only the driver’s salary and fuel expense.

With the proposed resumption of toll fee collection, which is an average ₹3,000 for a round trip, the truck owners said they have no other go but to increase freight charge. “With curfew under way, return load availability is almost nil. Further, toll fee collection will only burden us,” R K Prabhakaran, secretary of Trichy District Lorry Owners Association, said. Out of the 4,500 trucks in the district, due to poor demand and unavailability of drivers, only 500 ply on roads to transport essential commodities, mostly vegetables. The truck owners anticipate freight charge to go up by at least 10% if toll fee collection resumes.

Members of the public have also demanded that toll fee collection be suspended throughout the lockdown period. “Prices of essential commodities may increase citing the surge in freight charge. Middle class families are already facing the heat of the lockdown, the government should suspend the toll fee collection till it is lifted,” K C Neelamegam, state adviser, Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam, said.

BACK IN BUSINESS