Motorists travelling towards Burdwan along NH19 will be temporarily exempted from paying toll at the Dankuni Toll Plaza after a section of a flyover developed structural damage near Memari in East Burdwan.

Traffic has been suspended on the affected stretch, and the repairs have started.

Officials have said vehicles heading towards Burdwan need not pay toll at the Dankuni plaza from Thursday until the damaged stretch of the highway becomes operational again. The temporary relief has been introduced in view of the inconvenience caused to motorists following the diversion of traffic from the damaged portion of the flyover.

However, motorists travelling further towards Burdwan will have to pay the prescribed toll at the Palsit Toll Plaza, located nearly 60km from Dankuni. From Palsit, the distance to Burdwan town is around 22km.

Vehicles moving in the opposite direction towards Dankuni will continue to pay toll both at the Palsit and Dankuni plazas as usual, as that carriageway remains fully operational.

On Wednesday morning, a portion of the reinforced concrete retaining wall along the Burdwan-bound lane of the NH19 flyover collapsed at Sardanga in Memari. The collapse raised immediate concerns about the structural safety of the recently built highway.

The Trinamool Congress said the collapse exposed poor-quality work in the execution of the highway project and described the toll exemption as a “damage control” exercise by the Centre.

Prakash Raha, vice-chairman of Dankuni Municipality, expressed concern over the incident and questioned the quality of construction. “It is shocking to see the retaining wall of the flyover collapse within a few months of its inauguration. It appears that poor quality materials were used in execution,” he said.

BJP leaders, however, rejected the allegations and argued that while the Centre funded national highway projects, the construction was carried out at the state level.

Debasis Mukherjee, vice-president of the BJP's Serampore organising committee, said: “The Centre only allocates funds for the construction of roads under NH projects, but execution of the roads is done by the state government. Whether poor quality materials were supplied by Trinamool syndicates needs to be probed.”