The toll plazas on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) and the East Coast Road (ECR) will resume toll collection from Wednesday. According to reports, the toll collection on these roads was stopped in March due to the lockdown.
The company which manages the two roads, Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC), has decided to resume toll collection from Wednesday since the staff members working in the toll plazas are able to come to work as the lockdown has been relaxed in the state.
The OMR starts at Madhya Kailash and ends near Mahabalipuram and runs for around 50 kilometres. It has two main toll plazas and three satellite plazas. The ECR connects Chennai with Cuddalore via Puducherry and runs parallel to the sea coast. It also has around three toll plazas on the stretch till Cuddalore. Permission has been granted for four-laning of the road and its extension till Kanyakumari at the southern tip of mainland India.
Around 1.5 lakh vehicles use the OMR and ECR on a normal weekday, a major chunk of which consists of professionals working in the IT and ITES companies on the OMR. The traffic saw a drastic fall due to the restrictions in movement imposed by the government. The number of vehicles on the OMR has gradually increased over the past few weeks as the lockdown relaxations have come into place.
Apart from manual collection of toll, FASTag-based fee collection will also be operated in these tolls, as per reports.
Tamil Nadu has around 50 toll plazas under the control of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Staff have been asked to wear masks and gloves while operating the plazas. In December, the NHAI enabled FASTags in all 482 lanes of the toll plazas in Tamil Nadu which has reportedly been adopted by 60% of the users, according to an NHAI official.