Cuttack, Dec. 14: Traffic on National Highway 5 was affected for nearly an hour today because of an agitation by the All Odisha Bus Owners’ Association at Manguli toll plaza.
The bus owners’ association had staged the protest against an enhancement of toll tax by Shree Jagannath Expressways Private Limited (SJEPL) to meet the expenses for six-laning of the national highway from Bhubaneswar to Cuttack and Chandikhol.
According to an agreement, the SJEPL has taken the Manguli toll plaza from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on a 26-years’ lease. It is supposed to expand the highway all by itself.
“Today, we stopped plying of buses to protest against the decision of enhancement of the toll tax for buses from Rs 220 to Rs 280 by the SJEPL,” said general secretary of the bus owners’ association Debendra Sahoo. He also said the NHAI had approved the SJEPL’s decision of hiking toll tax. Earlier, the NHAI used to collect Rs 220 as toll tax from buses at Manguli toll plaza. The NHAI has given the toll plaza on lease to the SJEPL, which imposed the revised toll fee from last night.
The protest disrupted vehicular traffic on NH-5, causing commuters to remain stranded on the expressway for an hour.“We remained stranded on the highway as all the buses and trucks were stuck at the toll gate because of the strike,” said Jayram Lenka, 33, a commuter from Jajpur.
“Though there is a provision that there should not be two toll gates within a distance of 60km, we are paying toll fee both at Manguli and Panikoili toll gates. The Manguli toll gate is located within a 5-km radius of Choudwar Municipality, which is also a violation of the norms related to establishment of toll gates,” said Roshna Sahu, another commuter.
The toll tax for cars and other four-wheelers, which was earlier Rs 40, has now been hiked to Rs 55.
The Odisha State Truck Owners’ Federation has also termed the enhancement of toll tax as “arbitrary”.
“We protest against the hike in toll fee. It would have been more appropriate if there was a prior consultation and discussion in this regard before levying the revised toll fee,” said Rabi Satpathy, general secretary of the Odisha State Truck Owners’ Federation.
Satpathy said a toll tax of Rs 145 used to be collected for trucks earlier, which had now been hiked to Rs 185.
A special category has also been made for multi-axle trucks having more than six wheels. Such heavy vehicles will have to pay Rs 290 instead of Rs 145 at the Manguli toll gate.
