Private bus operators protest toll hike, regulations; NHAI says no rollback
Trichy: Private bus operators on Tuesday resorted to a flash protest on Trichy-Thanjavur national highway (NH) at the Thuvakudi toll plaza condemning the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for increasing the monthly pass fee for private mofussil buses and reducing the number of trips permitted per monthly pass.
Sources said that 25 private buses operate in Trichy-Thanjavur destinations. Each bus serves at least eight trips per day. The bus owners were earlier paying 8,045 per month per bus to operate buses through Thuvakudi NHAI's toll plaza.
The buses were allowed to use the toll plaza unlimited times as per the NHAI (Rate of Fee Rules) 1997. However, from April, NHAI has revised the rules as per the NHAI Fee Rules Amendment 2008, and the monthly pass was increased to 10,495 per bus.
In addition the buses were allowed only 50 trips per monthly pass.
"Even the monthly pass cost revision was acceptable but the cap on the number of trips made by a bus is unacceptable. Our buses operate around 360 trips per month, so we will be forced to pay around 80,000 per month as toll fee," R Dharmarajan, secretary, Federation of bus operators association of Tamil Nadu told TOI.
NHAI said that they are not willing to make any compromise in the revisions made in the fee rules and permitted trips per pass.
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Following the protest, Thuvakudi police pacified the protesters. Trichy district administration was informed about the standoff. Subsequently, NHAI Thanjavur project implementation unit (PIU) was instructed by the district administration to resolve the deadlock. "The revisions apply to the entire country, we cannot change the rules. Bus operators are not willing to pay for making unlimited entries in the toll plaza," an official source with NHAI said.
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