Bhubaneswar, May 23: Private bus owners have threatened to stop plying vehicles through toll plazas, set up by the National Highways Authority of India, protesting against the state government's decision to collect part of the fee from passengers at the gates.

According to a transport department notification, officials at the toll plazas would collect two-third of the fee from passengers and the rest from the owner.

The new rule means a passenger travelling from Bhubaneswar to Balasore would have to pay Rs 12, apart from the fare, which is Rs 120 for ordinary bus services. The 203km distance has three toll points - Manguli in Cuttack, Panikoili in Jajpur and Seragarh in Balasore district. While the passenger's share will be Rs 3.80 at Manguli, it will be Rs 4.30 and Rs 3.90 at Panikoili and Seragarh, respectively. However, those travelling less than 20km will not be charged the extra fee.

In first phase, toll would be collected at eight points on the national highways, where passengers will have to pay between Rs 3.80 and Rs 5.90.

Private bus owners, however, protested against the new formula and threatened to stop plying their vehicles through these gates once the notification is implemented.

"Passenger buses were paying monthly charges of Rs 1,000 at each toll gate. The owners were chipping in with the tax from their own pockets. However, we do not favour collecting toll from the passengers. The new guidelines will enforce most passenger buses to pay toll at minimum two points. It would affect around 6,000 private buses. We will stop plying through these toll gates once the government starts collecting toll fee from the passengers," said Odisha Private Bus Operators' Association general secretary Debendra Sahu. At present, around 16,000 private buses ply in the state.

State transport minister Ramesh Majhi said the highways authority had been asking the state government to increase its toll collection from private buses for some time. "The representatives of the private bus associations were present in the technical committee meeting, which decided the new guideline. At that time, they did not oppose it. However, we will hold a meeting with them before implementing the notification," said Majhi.

In a related development, the state government today increased fares for all categories of passenger buses following the automatic fare adjustment mechanism. The fares for ordinary and express buses have been increased by 1 paisa per km, while that for the deluxe and air-conditioned deluxe buses have been increased by 2 paise per km. The fare for ordinary buses will now be 59 paise per km, while that of the express buses will be 62 paise following the hike. Similarly, deluxe category buses will now charge 82 paise per km, while the air-conditioned deluxe ones will charge Rs 1.03 per km.