Bengaluru's latest hike taking a 'toll' on travellers

As if Bengaluru's traffic wasn't bad enough, commuters are now forced to pay higher tolls for travelling on three major roads.

Starting July 1, the user fee has been increased for all types of vehicles for the Electronic City flyover/Attibele highway, the part of NICE Road that runs within Bengaluru and the highway to Nelamangala.

The hike ranges from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, and in some cases, even more than that.

Also Read: City officials suggest short-term corrections to decongest traffic

While the increase in the toll for Electronic City flyover/Attibele highway has come after a year, it has happened after five years in the case of NICE Road.

The E-City flyover/highway is maintained by Bangalore Expressway Toll Private Tollway, a special purpose vehicle set up by the National Highways Authority of India to develop the 24.365-km-long section of NH-44 from the Central Board Junction to Attibele. Mumbai-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) is the concessionaire and can impose the toll until 2034.

The flyover is 9.98 km long linking the Silk Board Junction to Electronic City. The tolled road to Attibele, near the Tamil Nadu border, is 14.38 km.

NICE Road, in Bengaluru, runs as a semi-peripheral road for 41 kilometres linking Hosur Road to Tumakuru Road via Bannerghatta Road, Kanakapura Road, Mysuru Road and Magadi Road, supplemented by an 8.1-km-long link road. It is maintained by Nandi Economic Corridor Enterprises Limited (NICE), a consortium controlled by Ashok Kheny, a controversial entrepreneur.

Navayuga Bengalooru Tollway Private Limited has a contract for maintaining the 19-km-long Bengaluru-Nelamangala section of National Highway 4 until 2027.

The companies have cited rising maintenance costs and inflation (Wholesale Price Index) for increasing the toll.

Mobility activists and travel operators, however, question the very imposition of the toll.

Also Read: Increase in toll fee: Not so 'nice', feel commuters

Sanjeev Dyamannavar, an urban mobility activist, believes that the construction cost has been nearly recovered in the case of Electronic City and Nelamangala roads, both of which were built over a decade ago. He acknowledged that the roads need maintenance — replacing bearings, lighting costs, cleanliness and the usual wear and tear — but argued against revising the toll.

In his opinion, the maintenance cost is too insignificant to warrant a yearly increase in the toll.

"If any, the toll should actually be phased out. But what's happening is quite the opposite," he said.

According to Dyamannavar, the Electronic City flyover and the Nelamangala highway also have capacity constraints. Both these roads have four lanes each, he pointed out. "Why didn't they build six lanes to meet the future traffic requirements," he asked, adding the Ballari Road flyover has six lanes built on single piers and never sees traffic jams.

"The (Electronic City flyover/Nelamangala highway) are not downtown roads. They are highways and should be wide enough," he added.

Both Tumakuru Road (Nelamangala highway) and Hosur Road (Electronic City) are wide enough to accommodate two more lanes on single piers, he said.

Also Read: BMLTA, BJP’s key 2018 poll promise, on backburner for a year

Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Karnataka State Travel Operators Association, asked the government to end the toll. He said the user fee had gone up by as much as 150 per cent in just about a decade.

Besides the cost, road users have often complained about traffic jams on these tolled roads. The E-City flyover, for example, has had its share of bumper-to-bumper traffic, frustrating motorists. "Why would you pay the toll if you get stuck on the flyover for hours together," a user asked.

Safety is another concern. In some parts of NICE Road, where police patrolling is poor, motorists often get mugged. Hiking the toll without addressing these problems has irked the commuters.