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Zirakpur-Patiala highway: NHAI’s two toll plazas come under high court gaze
Zirakpur-Patiala highway: Petitioner says rules prohibit two toll booths within 60km, NHAI to reply by May 30.
Chandigarh The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)’s decision to establish two toll plazas on the newly four-laned Zirakpur-Patiala road has come under the Punjab and Haryana high court scanner.
A high court lawyer has challenged the decision arguing that the decision violates NHAI rules of having a minimum distance of 60km between two tolls.
The 50-km highway has two toll booths – one between Zirakpur and Rajpura, and another on the Rajpura-Patiala road — charging ₹30 and ₹35, respectively. The highway connects Chandigarh to the Malwa belt in Punjab, including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Fazilka districts, besides parts of Haryana.
The project, with an overall expenditure of about ₹600 crore, is being executed by the subsidiary of a Russian construction company. The tolls are to be made functional later this month.
Two plazas just 35km apart
Rajbir Singh, a Mohali resident, has argued that toll plazas contravene the provisions of 2008 NHAI rules, which say that no toll plaza can be established within 10km of a municipal or local town limit and no other toll plaza can be established on the same section and in the same direction within a distance of 60km.
The court was told that these two plazas are being constructed within MC limits of Patiala and Zirakpur and that the distance between the two is less than 35 km. One is being established at Azizpur near Zirakpur and next near Dhareri Jattan village in Patiala.
The court was also informed that the project is not complete as one major flyover is still under construction.
“It is settled law that the department will not start receiving the toll collection until the road is complete,” the petitioner told court seeking restraint order and removal of one of the tolls.
The court has also been told that the total road length between Zirakpur and Bathinda is 216 km and only three to four toll plazas can be established on it. But the department has decided to establish five toll plazas.
According to the petitioner, there is one toll plaza on the national highway-1 between Ambala and Jalandhar near Rajpura (towards Ambala side).
“If these two start functioning, Rajpura town will be surrounded by three toll plazas and general public will face hardship. They will pay toll for going to all three major cities nearby — Patiala, Ambala and Zirakpur,” the petition says. The court has asked the NHAI to respond by May 30.
