Ahmedabad, 7 August, 2014

A plea has been filed in the Gujarat High Court against toll plaza at two places within 16 km stretch on Ahmedabad-Godhra highway. A bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice JB Pardiwala has asked state government to become party and sought reply from National Highway Authority of India(NHAI).

According to petitioner NHAI constructed highway to Dahod has one toll plaza located near Tithai village while another is located near Vavdi village towards Indore just 16 km away. The toll plaza at Vavdi is totally illegal. It has no service road, due to which the vehicles need to pass through the toll plaza compulsorily. As per a rule there must be minimum 60 km distance between two toll plazas. Vehicles are unnecessarily stopped and asked to pay money for passage.

It should be mentioned here that Rule no. 8 of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008 stipulates there can not be any toll plaza within 10 km of cities. The Rule 8 (2) of the Fee Rules says toll plazas cannot be set up in the same section within 60 km distance.