Rs 354 crore more to be paid to cut user fee by 60%: NHAI

CHENNAI: While Chennai-Tindivanam Highway was designed to carry 35,000 vehicles a day, it now carries an average of 95,000 vehicles a day. The high traffic means the toll collection too shot up and the RTI reply given by NHAI says it has collected Rs 1,098 crore since it started. When Express asked how the cost of the project — Rs 536 crore — had still not been recovered despite the high collections, NHAI said it makes the calculations based on a memorandum issued on January 24, 2013, by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Until this memorandum was passed, only four per cent of toll revenues was deducted for maintenance and the rest of the amount was fully adjusted towards project cost in all public-funded projects.