Traffic came to a standstill for an hour at the Gadanki toll plaza on the Tirupati-Bengaluru national highway as members of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) staged a protest against collection of hefty fee from the passersby.
Responding to a call by TDP’s Chittoor parliamentary constituency In charge Pulivarthi Nani, activists decried the ‘arbitrary manner’ in which the toll plaza was collecting fee from people even as the road widening work had not been completed in several patches.
They also wondered how the plaza could be allowed to collect toll, as the government had not paid the mandatory compensation to those who had lost lands for the widening of the six-lane highway.
There is also silent outcry among government and private employees who take this major road for their to and fro journey between Tirupati and Chittoor on official work and are now required to pay a hefty ₹130 everyday.
‘No concession for residents’
Residents of Pakala mandal, under which the toll plaza falls, said that the residents were the ‘worst victims’ as they were made to pay a heavy amount towards toll almost everyday.
“Residents in a radius of 20 km are given a concession to travel either side of the plaza. But we are having to pay the full amount,” fumed Balarama Naidu, a resident of Nendragunta, a highway-abutting village less than 5 km from the toll plaza.
Vehicles remained stranded for a distance of over 2 km on either side of the plaza for an hour.
