Highway’s still bad, collect only half toll till Jan 18, HC tells NHAI

Chennai: The Madras high court on Monday extended till January 18 its interim order directing the National Highways Authority of India to collect only 50% of user fee in toll plazas between Maduravoyal and Walajapet on the Chennai-Bengaluru highway. A division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice R Hemalatha had passed the order on December 9 in view of poor maintenance of the stretch.
During a hearing on Monday, the bench extended the order till Pongal after refusing to accept a submission of the NHAI that potholes on the stretch have been filled and patchwork completed.
“I personally travelled on the highway on Saturday and Sunday. Patchwork done is not up to standard and breaks off when a truck passes over,” Justice Sathyanarayanan said.
“As we used to say, it is not a highway but a hell way,” the bench said.
Rejecting the request of advocate G Karthikeyan, counsel for the NHAI, to vacate the interim order and to permit NHAI to collect full user fee, the bench said it wondered which law permits the authority to collect toll fee without providing proper road.