8/14/2019 19.12.08.dh.anger, chaos at nice gates

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Anger, chaos at NICE gatesH NEWS SERVICEANGALORE : Indias costli-

t toll road opened itsates here on Thursday, in-antly triggering a wavef public and politicalnger at the high fee leviedn motorists.

The toll booths put upy the Nandi Infrastruc-re Corridor Enterprise

NICE) on its 41-km Pe-pheral Road and 9.1 kmnk Road loomed over theotorists, as if to pro-aim: Pay heavy, No moreee rides!

Political leaders, irre-ective of their party af-iations, agreed that thell was very high and a

eavy burden on the mid-e class people. For theongress and the JD(S)aders, the ruling BJPas to blame for the heavyriff. BJP state president

V Sadananda Gowdaid he would speak to theinister concerned.

Caught off guard by theew pay-and-use rule, mo-

rists got stuck at the tollollection points, causinguge traffic jams. But whatmmed up the publicood was this lament byalani, a truck driver fromrishnagiri who had beeniving trucks for nearly9 years: They haveharged me Rs 145 for a dis-nce of 30 kilometre fromelamangala to Hosuroad. Is this fair?

The traffic pile-up hadegun early on Thursday

orning.Vehicles from Kanaka-ura road, Bannerghattaad moving towardsysore Road and thoseom Hosur Road, Tumkuroad heading towardsysore Road were caughtthe chaos. Yet, despite

aying a heavy toll, it wasot a smooth ride for com-uters who had to enduree rugged, incompleteatch of dirt roads on theICE road.

On the first day of thetoll collection, the NandiEconomic Corridor Enter-prise (NECE), a sub-divi-sion of NICE, was in activemode.

It was exclusively com-missioned for the collec-tion of the fee, besides op-eration and maintenanceof the toll gates.

Ashok Kheny, Manag-ing Director, NICE, had hisdefence ready to a query onthe high toll: The tariff for the BMIC was informedto the State governmentand a gazette notificationwas issued as early as 2000.

Since then the toll hasbeen the same. Anything Ido, I do it legally and I nev-

er break the law, he told Deccan Herald .

But he could be in formore trouble since theJD(S) has responded to thetoll in strong words.

As the partys statepresident and formerchief minister H D Ku-maraswamy put it, theJD(S) struggle against the

company will Heres what JDal president HGowda had to can say is that the complete Chief Ministerdyurappa in imheavy toll on the

n NICE tNH u

Toll being collected at the Kanakpura road junction on Thursday.

Toll very high: Politicians n Gazette notification issued in 2000: Kheny

BANGALORE, DHNS: The toll concession agreement signedbetween the State government and NICE makes itobligatory on the part of the latter to inform the gov-ernment of its proposals for toll rates.

But, the matter ends there. As per a clause embed-ded in Article 3 of the agreement signed on September4, 2000, the government can issue a notification 30days after the proposal for toll is received from the com-pany. Now, if the government fails to notify the tollstructure, it shall be deemed to have been accepted,confirmed and cleared by it. That is what has happened

now. We sent our proposal to the government to im-pose toll long back, but there was no response from the

government. As per the provisions in the agreedecided to collect the toll, a NICE spokespers

The toll concession agreement also provideculating the toll even before the pact was signeper the provisions in the agreement, the currenrates have been calculated in terms of the ratestioned in the agreement, taking calendar year the base year. The agreement specified the foltoll rates (in Rs per km) for different vehicles. Bus: Rs 2.7; Truck: Rs 1.75; LCV: Rs 1.05; MAper axle; Two wheeler: Re 0.4.

Continued

Government in a fix over toll collectionGovernment in a fix over toll collection