Toll road users suspect scam in fee collection on KRS bridge

Mysuru: Road users suspect a scam in the toll fee collection on the bridge across the River Cauvery at KRS (Krishnaraja Sagar) village of Mandya district.

A few road users have complained that the toll fee collection in KRS is a scam, as the staff, on contract, at the toll collection point collect a fee for every passing vehicle on that bridge.

A post on ‘X’ by North BangalorePost has displayed a receipt of the toll fee of a car, paid on Saturday (October 5, 2024) at 12.22 pm. It reads: “Ticket Scam alert, KRS Brindavan Road #Mysuru. Some elements are stopping vehicles & demanding ₹50-100 for using this untolled Road while ticket being issued is for Brindavan Garden parking”.

The post has been tagged to @CPMysuru, @osd_cmkarnataka and has hastags: #MysuruDasara2024 #Karnataka source: Press Club #Bengaluru #WhatsApp group

The receipt mentions: “Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Limited (CNNL), Welcome to Brindavan Garden, CNNL, KRS Division, KRS, Car Toll Fee, Rs 50, Parking at Own Risk”.

Hemanth Patel, a Mysurean, who occasionally visits his relatives at Katteri of Pandavapura taluk, pointed out that there in no mention of either the road or the bridge on the receipt. He said, “I asked the person collecting the fee, on what basis we have to pay the toll? The answer from them is ‘to cross the bridge’. This is a high-tech scam. Daily, around 5,000 vehicles pass on the bridge, and the numbers double and triple during weekends. A minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh (50X5,000) is collected per day, as the fee for bigger vehicles is higher. Thus, the annual collection should at least Rs 9.5 crore (2.5 lakh X 365 days). If the officials still claim that the cost of the bridge is not recovered. There is definitely a scam,” he said.

Patel said, according to old statistics, 2,29,963 vehicles visited KRS Dam in 2011-2012; 2,28,896 in 2012-2013, 2,29,839 in 2013-2014, and 2,29,798 vehicles in 2014-2015. “Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the numbers have increased. Besides, vehicles bound for KR Pet and Pandvapura side, including villages on both routes like Sri Venugopalaswamy Swamy Temple on the backwaters of KRS Dam also cross the bridge, in huge numbers,” he pointed out.

Assistant Executive Engineer Farooq Ahmed Abu, KRS, CNNL, said, the bridge was constructed by the erstwhile Irrigation department in 2003 at an approximate cost of Rs 18 crore. “So far, over Rs 16 crore has been collected through the toll fee. We gave the details to higher officials, recently. The toll has to be collected till the total cost of the bridge is recovered. However, the higher officials will decide whether to continue the toll or not, after its cost is recovered,” he said.

Abu added that the toll fee is not collected from the residents of the nearby villages.