Toll collection begins on STRR’s first stretch; local cars can ply for Rs 330 a month

Toll collection started on Friday for the first stretch of the Bengaluru Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR), which has Karnataka’s maiden boothless toll plaza at Nalluru near Devanahalli. 

The 288-km STRR is being constructed to link Bengaluru with neighbouring towns such as Dobbspet, Devanahalli, Hoskote and Ramanagara. It will link five national highways and dozens of state highways. 

Once fully ready, it will eliminate the need for long-distance commercial vehicles to enter Bengaluru. Traffic moving between satellite towns will also be able to bypass the city. 

Of the STRR’s 10 packages, the Doddaballapur bypass-Hoskote section (34.15 km) has been completed. It was on this section that toll collection began on Friday. 

Light motor vehicles have to pay Rs 70 for a single trip and Rs 105 for a round trip within 24 hours. Buses and trucks pay Rs 240 and Rs 360, respectively. Some travellers — mostly residents from nearby villages — said they weren’t aware of toll collection. 

“I travelled through the same route yesterday and there was no information about this change. I only found out just now,” said Vijayakumar, a Devenahalli resident travelling by car. 

Ranjith Kumar, another car traveller, sought to know the logic behind toll collection when work is still pending on the 42-km-long Dobbspet-Doddaballapur stretch. 

While most long-distance vehicles seamlessly passed through the toll plaza at Nalluru, some faced hindrances due to technical snags. A few car and truck drivers were stuck inside the plaza for a few minutes despite having enough FASTag balance. 

All vehicles need to have FASTag and those that don’t are charged double. Authorities say vehicle users from within a 20-km radius can pass through the toll plaza for free in the next 15 days by producing their IDs. 

After that, local non-commercial vehicles can use monthly travel passes costing Rs 330 each. “Commuters must submit copies of their Aadhar card/any valid ID card, RC book and a photograph of the vehicle for the pass,” said a senior employee of Sri Sai Enterprises, the agency in charge of toll collection. 

While passes will be issued from Saturday, a few travellers submitted the required documents on Friday. 

FASTag counters

To help commuters move to the FASTag process, two counters have been set up: one on the right before the toll plaza while coming from Doddaballapur and another after the plaza on the left. However, the number of people availing of the facility was very low in the early hours of Friday with barely five cars using the facility, said Shashi Kumar, a FASTag agent. 

Travellers from Bengaluru Rural district can get a 50% rebate on the toll but have to pay the identical sum for both to and fro travel. 

Government vehicles are also exempted from paying the toll fee. So are tractors, autos and two-wheelers. 

According to KB Jayakumar, Project Director (Bengaluru), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), the Doddaballapur-Hoskote section is 38 km long but only 34 km is being tolled because the remaining 4 km is part of the under-construction Bengaluru-Chennai expressway. 

The NHAI has constructed a control room near the Nalluru toll plaza that monitors continuously vehicles through an Automatic Traffic Management System (ATMS).

Toll target:

Rs 13 lakh/day

The NHAI expects Rs 13 lakh in daily toll revenue from the  STRR’s Doddaballapur-Hoskote section.  The Dobbspet-Doddaballapur section (42) will be ready in January and tolled in February. Once it opens in January 2024 the NHAI expects a 70% reduction in trucks going through Goraguntepalya a junction notorious for traffic jams in northern Bengaluru Jayakumar said.  The Doddaballapur-Hoskote section has 18 underpasses and one overpass and road overbridge each. These grade separators have been constructed wherever there is a major village road crossing or traffic junction, Jayakumar added.