Chennai: National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has started collecting half the toll amount at Sriperumbudur and Walajapet toll plazas from Tuesday.
A police complaint was filed based on a TOI report (on Monday), which highlighted that NHAI violated Madras high court’s direction and was collecting full toll fee from users. HC had last week penalised NHAI for poor maintenance of the 93-km highway stretch between Poonamallee and Walajapet along the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (NH48/ Old NH4) and directed both the toll plazas to collect only 50% of user fee till December 21.
Soon after the police complaint, toll booth employees and NHAI officials were summoned to the Sriperumbudur police station. The officials gave a oral submission to comply with the court order and and agreed to paste the slashed rates at both locations, after which they were let go.
The complainant, S Yuvaraj from Tamil Nadu Truckers’ Association, said, “A central government organisation such as NHAI is expected to take the court direction seriously. They can’t expect the public to approach police every time to get court orders implemented”.
