Three legislators from Mandya have sought Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s intervention to stop collection of toll on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway at Gananguru in Srirangapatna scheduled to begin from July 1 till all pending works of the project are completed.
Congress MLC Dinesh Gooli Gowda and MLAs representing Mandya and Srirangapatna Assembly constituencies viz P. Ravi Kumar and Ramesh Bandisidde Gowda respectively, who have taken up the cudgels against National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) decision to start collecting toll in Srirangapatna, have also written letters in the regard to Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and Additional Chief Secretary of Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka.
The Congress legislators have pointed out that collection of toll at Gananguru in Srirangapatna will ‘over-burden’ motorists, who are already facing financial problems due to inflation. The 10-lane expressway between Bengaluru and Mysuru, which was inaugurated in March this year, may have eased the travel hours, but the motorists are forced to cough up a huge sum of money in the form of toll, the letter said.
The legislators have raised questions over the propriety of levying a toll when works on the highway project were yet to be fully completed. They have cited the examples of the incomplete work on the service road at Hanakere Underpass in Mandya taluk and the bridge on the service road connecting Hale Budanur with Hosa Budanur, which was causing water logging on the expressway.
Apart from water logging on different stretches of the expressway and service roads, the legislators complained that streetlights were not properly functioning at many places. There was also improper fencing and an absence of proper entries and exits on the expressway.
Hence, collection of toll by NHAI at this juncture was condemnable, the legislators said, alleging that the work was progressing at a very slow pace.
The levy at Gananguru means people travelling in four-wheelers will have to pay ₹320 for one-way between Bengaluru and Mysuru and ₹485 for a two-way journey.
They have urged CM Siddaramaiah to intervene and prevail upon the NHAI to stop collection of toll till the pending works are completed.
