Don’t let TNSTC buses cross four toll plazas in south Tamil Nadu, says High Court

Don’t let TNSTC buses cross four toll plazas in south Tamil Nadu, says High Court

The petitioners said most government buses were not equipped with FASTag, in violation of the rules framed by the Centre.

MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S. 09.07.2025

CHENNAI The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered that Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) buses should not be allowed to pass through the toll plazas maintained by four concessionaires on the national highways leading to the southern districts of the State from July 10, owing to ₹276 crore in toll fee arrears.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said he had no choice but to take the extreme step of preventing public transportation through the toll plazas since the State transport department had not taken steps to settle the arrears with the four National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) concessionaires.

Conscious of passing a shocking order that could lead to law and order issues, the judge directed the Director General of Police/Head of Police Force (DGP/HoPF) to ensure the deployment of adequate police personnel at Kappalur, Etturavattam, Salaipudhur and Nanguneri toll plazas to prevent any untoward incident.

The judge directed the High Court Registry to mark a copy of his interim order to the DGP as well as the Inspector General of Police (south zone) for compliance in letter and in spirit, and decided to take stock of the situation on July 15.

The concessionaires

Madurai-Kanniyakumari Tollway Private Limited, Kanniyakumari-Etturavattam Tollway Private Limited, Salaipudur-Madurai Tollway Private Limited, and Nanguneri-Kanniyakumari Tollway Private Limited had approached the court last year by filing individual writ petitions.

Senior counsel Sathish Parasaran, representing the writ petitioners, contended that his clients had been suffering huge losses due to the failure of Tamil Nadu government buses to pay toll charges despite using the national highways for transporting their passengers.

Law and order

He said most government buses were not equipped with FASTag, in violation of the rules framed by the Centre. Mr. Parasaran said the toll plaza staff would not dare to stop the buses over non-payment of toll, due to the fear that it may lead to law and order issues.

It was brought to the notice of the court that the State transport corporations had settled only about ₹48.5 crore in dues, and that ₹276 crore (including the principal amount of ₹116 crore, apart from penalty and interest) was yet to be paid to the four NHAI concessionaires.

After recording the submissions, Justice Venkatesh said the amount may end up increasing to ₹300 crore to ₹400 crore if the transport corporations continue to prolong the issue instead of settling the dues with the concessionaires.

He said the government officials may not understand the seriousness of the issue or act swiftly unless the extreme step of stopping the buses at the toll plazas was resorted to. He said the corporations had brought such a precarious situation upon themselves, adversely affecting the common people.