Kerala: Police stall move to collect toll on Kollam bypass

KOLLAM: City police stopped the move by a contract company to collect toll on the Kollam bypass on Friday. The Union government had allowed the company to collect toll from 8am on Friday. Police told the company officials that they cannot collect toll as they did not get permission for the same from the state government.
District collector B Abdul Nazar said that the state government had sought some more time in this regard.
The company had not formally informed the district administration about the move to collect toll from Friday morning. Instead the company officials informed the authorities through a WhatsApp message. Company officials said they had received the permission from the Union government to collect the toll. But the state government is yet to approve the same.
Meanwhile, PWD minister G Sudhakaran wrote to the national highways authority of India (NHAI) that as the bypass was constructed as a joint venture funded by the Centre and state at 50:50 ratio, Centre could not take a unilateral decision. He also had pointed out that state government was against toll collection.
“As you know, 50% of the construction cost is shared by state government. Our policy is against imposing toll for roads and bridges,” Sudhakaran wrote to NHAI. Sudhakaran had also written to the Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, in this regard.