Vidyasagar Setu: Finest toll plaza in India ahead

Vidyasagar Setu is all set to flaunt one of the most modern toll plazas in the country by early 2006.

Imported equipment will be installed on the second Hooghly bridge, following an agreement between Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) and a private firm.

The plaza will have smart-card facilities, reversible gates, and electronic toll counters (ETC) along with closed-circuit cameras at the gates.

?We have placed the work order and the toll plaza will be maintained by SMSL-IRD (JV) on a build-operate-transfer basis. It will be operational early next year,? HRBC chairman Swadesh Chakraborty told Metro on Tuesday.

?The plan is to modernise the plaza, make traffic flow faster and curb toll evasion. It will be the best toll plaza in the country,? he asserted.

SMSL-IRD (JV), a joint--venture company from western India, has been given the contract, after consulting experts from IIT Kharagpur. One of the terms of the agreement is that the firm will make a one-time payment of Rs 1.35 crore for five years to HRBC. It will also instal the toll machine, worth Rs 6.5 crore.

?Many vehicles evade paying the toll now. But it won?t be that easy after the revamp. The cameras will record the registration number,? claimed Chakraborty. At the same time, toll collection will be faster with the smart cards.

The employees? union of the toll office, however, had strong reservations about the revamp. ?We fear that the 85 employees working at the toll collection office will be laid off,? said P.B. Nag and Binoy Das, joint general secretaries of Development Employees Joint Action Committee. ?The management didn?t discuss the privatisation with us,? they rued.

At present, the annual toll collection on the bridge is Rs 16 crore. Chairman Chakraborty said there were no plans to hike the toll tariff.