Jajpur: A failure to shift toll plazas at Panikoili, Manguli and Srirampur on National Highway-16 even as 15 months have passed since the transport commissioner wrote to works secretary on the issue has turned out to be a disappointment for commuters.
The state transport commissioner in his letter (11063/July 19, 2016) urged the works secretary to implement a decision of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in shifting toll plazas on highways to identified places as they were established in violation of NHAI guidelines.
Commuters have to cough up lots of money while travelling on these highways. This happened as the consultancy agencies managing toll plazas have managed to stall the decision with the alleged help of influential political leaders.
The consultancy agency of Panikoili toll gate apprehends that it will lose a major chunk of its revenues generated from heavy vehicles coming from Keonjhar, Sukinda mines and Kalinganagar if the tollgate is shifted to Akhuapada.
Notably, there are four toll plazas within a 100 km distance on Cuttack-Panikoli NH-16, Chandikhole-Paradip NH-53 and Panikoli-Keonjhar NH-215. Among them toll plazas at Panikoli and Srirampur operate in Jajpur district.
According to NHAI guidelines, there has to be a minimum 60 km distance between two tollgates. However, the Manguli tollgate on NH-16 is 52 km from Panikoli tollgate. A sum of Rs 6-10 crore is annually collected from these two toll gates.
A person travelling to Tarini temple at Ghatagaon from Bhubaneswar has to pay tolls thrice at Manguli, Panikoili and Anandpur. This has sparked resentment among commuters.
It was alleged that tension brewed not only among commuters but among residents which might snowball into a major unrest in future.
Realising the anomalies, the NHAI authorities decided to relocate Manguli, Panikoli and Srirampur tollgates from their existing locations in July 2016.
It was then decided to shift Manguli toll plaza in Cuttack district to Bandalo in Jajpur district and Panikoili toll plaza to Akhuapada in Bhadrak district which would be about 60 km from Bandalo tollgate.
Similarly, Srirampur toll plaza in Jajpur district was to be shifted to Marshaghai in Kendrapara district as it was only at a distance of 32-km from Panikoili tollgate.
Panikoili tollgate even after shifting to Akhuapada will be at a distance of 41 km from Srirampur toll gate for which it was decided to shift the latter to Marshaghai in Kendrapara district.
When contacted, Aniruddh Rath, manager of Panikoili toll plaza feigned ignorance on the development. He, however, assured to abide by the government decision. PNN
