JSP leaders seek removal of Aganampudi toll plaza
Jana Sena Party leaders speaking to media in Visakhapatnam on Friday
Visakhapatnam: Owing to the negligence of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) officials, hundreds of crores of rupees are being charged for the residents of Visakhapatnam every year in the garb of Aganampudi toll gate, Jana Sena Party leaders said.
Speaking to the media in Visakhapatnam on Friday, they said even after the toll plaza tenure expired, the NHAI continued to collect toll fees. Earlier, the road was excluded from the national highway, they added.
Speaking on the occasion, GVMC corporator P Murthy Yadav said that wine shop owners when approached the NHAI officials in 2016 for licenses for wine shops, the authorities certified that it was not a national highway.Based on that, bars and wine shops have been established along the stretch, but strangely, in the case of motorists, the road is still considered as a national highway, he pointed out. The corporator said that the NHAI is not even maintaining the road, except construction. He said that GVMC has spent more than Rs 150 crore for the repairs of the road, maintenance, lighting facility, median construction, green belt development, etc. He wondered that when the GVMC is maintaining the stretch, how can the NHAI collect the toll fee? JSP North Andhra regional coordinator Nagalakshmi Chaudhary recalled that the High Court had issued orders in 2019 not to collect toll fees. With the negligence of the authorities, the toll mafia approached the Supreme Court and got a temporary relief order, alleged JSP leaders Dalli Govind Reddy and Triveni. They raised an objection over the GVMC officials for not filing a counter so far.
The JSP leaders said that the people of Visakhapatnam have been paying the toll fee for the road which is not a national highway for the past five years.
They demanded that the Aganampudi toll plaza should be removed immediately. Otherwise, they said that the JSP would approach the Central ministers and file a case in the court.