Exempted category vehicles take a toll on public funded highway plazas: CAG

CHENNAI: The percentage of exempted category or violating vehicles passing through public funded toll plazas in the State is much higher compared to toll plazas set up under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model, revealed the Comptroller and Auditor General report.

The audit report of NHAI’s toll operations in South India said a review of data from 10 toll plazas shows that percentage of exempted category vehicles ranged from 18.32 per cent (Lembalakudi toll plaza) to 53.27 per cent (Paranur toll plaza).

Of the 1.17 crore vehicles passed through the public funded Paranur toll plaza from August 2019 to June 2020, as many as 62.37 lakh were recorded as exempted category or violating vehicles. It was 36 per cent of all vehicles in the case of Athur toll plaza in the same period. Similarly, Kappalur (25%) and Lembalakudi (18%) toll plazas, too, recorded a high number of such vehicles from January to September 2020.

In sharp contrast, privately operated toll plazas under the BOT model witnessed a completely different scenario, with exempted category vehicles forming only 6.06 per cent in Kodai Road toll plaza and 12.6 per cent in Sengurichi.

Rejecting NHAI’s claim that there was no loss to the exchequer as the payment was fixed as per the agreement, the audit report said the reply was not tenable as the full toll collection as per NH Fee Rules was an indicator of revenue potential. Hence, under collection would impact the assessment of revenue potential for future agreements.

Terming the facility at Paranur as “BJP model tollgate”, CPM Parliamentarian Su Venkatesan pointed out that 53 per cent of vehicles passing through the toll plaza was counted as VIPs, while it is only 6 per cent in Kodai Road. “This shows irregularities in toll collection,” he said in a statement.