BJP opposes proposal to collect toll on Padubidri-Karkala State highway

The Belman unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that the State government scrap a proposal to collect toll on the 27.82-km Padubidri-Karkala State highway no. 1 in Udupi district that was developed under the Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project.

The Belman unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that the State government scrap a proposal to collect toll on the 27.82-km Padubidri-Karkala State highway no. 1 in Udupi district that was developed under the Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project.

In a memorandum to the government submitted through Udupi Deputy Commissioner K. Vidyakumari at Manipal on Thursday, the party decried the work order reportedly issued to M/s Bharathi Construction Company to collect the toll from August 16.

The toll collection amounts to double taxation as there is another toll booth on NH 66 at Padubidri within 6 km, the office-bearers said. The move would also adversely affect the life of the common man already bogged down by a steep increase in the cost of living, they said.

The BJP said the earlier State government, headed by Siddaramaiah, too had decided to collect toll on this stretch; however the same had to be withdrawn following stiff protest by V. Sunil Kumar, Karkala MLA, and others.

It claimed that having emptied the State coffers through the guarantee schemes, the Siddaramaiah government was attempting to rake in funds from all possible avenues, notwithstanding the inconvenience to people.

If the government does not rescind the decision on toll collection, the BJP with the residents along the highway stretch, would launch massive protest, it said.