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Friday, June 27, 2014

fare hike - in OMR Chennai - Toll Plazas

In the sizzling summer of Chennai, life is on fastlane, especially if you are to travel on  the IT Corridor aka OMR (Rajiv Gandhi Salai). Recently railway fares were hiked and there is expectation that there cold be further hikes of many in the forthcoming budget…. this is on one more hike, which perhaps either goes unnoticed or has not impacted people at all.


The winding  Old Mahabalipuram Road (Rajiv Gandhi Salai)  starts near the Kasturibai Nagar Railway station -  the Madhya Kailash temple in Adyar in South Chennai – winds it way till Mahabalipuram – being the earliest route – it carries the name ‘Old Mahabalipuram Road’ – this is State highway-49A. From Madhya Kailash,  it is designated ‘toll road’ and you have toll booth near Thuraipakkam (DB Jain College) as also in other places from where one enters OMR.  The corridor where some madly race in the jostling traffic alongside big plush buses; PTC buses; private vehicles; share autos and so many two wheelers (sadly one see / hears of nasty accidents frequently) – there are people changing lanes suddenly, riding on wrong lane, sudden turns unmindful of vehicles coming behind; big buses turning at will; people jumping over the median ….and more..

The corridor, an ambitious six-lane project with service lanes and landscaping, came in to being around 2005 – the 1st phase being  20.1 km from Madhya Kailash junction  to Siruseri — it is ever expanding and already struggling to find space for the ever increasing no. of users.  The IT Corridor Project, was an initiative of Government of Tamil Nadu to develop the Corridor as a world-class facility and to promote a progressive and IT/ITES friendly image of Tamil Nadu. The project is maintained by  TNRDC (Tamil Nadu Road Development Company). TNRDC floated a wholly-owned special purpose subsidiary viz., IT Expressway Ltd (ITEL) for domiciling the IT Corridor Project.


Fare hike is generally responded with lot of noise. … there is going to be hike in Toll rates in OMR effective 1st July 2014 – the hike may not impact you much and hence people most likely would not comment on that at all.  While daily travellers may not even think of it, there is some change in monthly pass rates. The 10 per cent fare hike on the road is a once in two years increase stipulated by the government, according to Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation officials. The current revised fares will be in effect till 2016. Though it may not impact individuals, there could be financial impact as thousands of vehicles use this road – of which private cars seem to outnumber all other vehicles put together.

As one would know – all tickets and passes(excluding Monthly Trip Pass) are vehicle specific and not transferable. In case of overloaded or over-sized vehicles, toll fee is charged at the rate of 200 percent of the applicable rates.  The monthly trip pass is also applicable in fact only for 60 single trips from 1st of the month to the last day of the month…. One trip would mean -  One Entry and Exit at any one of other Four plazas (other than originating plaza). If 60 trips are exhausted before the month end, the user will have to pay again for each trip.  Here is a table showing the existing, revised rates and the difference….


Rate from 1st July 2012
Cagtegory
One way
Return
Daily
Monthly
3 Wheeler
7
12
20
200
Car/Jeep
20
38
65
1550
LCV
34
60
90
2100
Bus
54
100
150
3450
Truck
80
140
220
5100
MAV
160
290
440
10300

Rates from 1st July 2014
Cagtegory
One way
Return
Daily
Monthly
3 Wheeler
8
15
25
250
Car/Jeep
22
40
70
1700
LCV
37
70
100
2300
Bus
59
110
170
3800
Truck
88
160
250
5600
MAV
176
320
500
11300





Difference
Cagtegory
One way
Return
Daily
Monthly
3 Wheeler
1
3
5
50
Car/Jeep
2
2
5
150
LCV
3
10
10
200
Bus
5
10
20
350
Truck
8
20
30
500
MAV
16
30
60
1000

Hope this is useful in some way

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

27th June 2014.

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