Traffic movement at the entrance of the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway was severely affected on Sunday morning as vehicles piled up at the toll booth in Kaniminike. While the normal Sunday crowd wanted to escape the restrictions imposed on movement of traffic between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., BJP followers headed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public rally at Channapatna in Ramanagara district added to the traffic.
Vehicles lined up for over a kilometre and took at least half an hour to cross the toll. Y. Nagaraj, who was headed to Channapatna waited for 45 minutes to just cross the toll booth. “What is the point in wasting so much time to clear the toll and enter a fast expressway? I had not seen such a traffic in a long time,” he said.
There were others stuck near the booth for close to an hour. “Movement became a problem as some tags were not working or the scanner could not scan the tag. We are just tired of waiting here,” said a person headed to Mysuru, who wished to remain anonymous.
It was not just at the toll booth on the expressway, traffic movement was also affected on NICE road. Motorists had to endure a long wait to exit the NICE road to enter the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway.
Thulasidas, Additional Commissioner, Commercial Tax, who left the city for Mysuru, had to wait for over one hour at the toll booth on the expressway. He said that, realising that he won’t be able to reach Mysuru on time, he decided to return. However, he had to pay the toll and then took a U-turn to return to the city.
Another commuter, who had to similarly take a U-turn after paying the toll, said he took objection to the authorities collecting toll on the expressway when authorities had anyway blocked traffic for most parts of the day on Sunday.
