Virudhunagar - Kanyakumari National Highway to be overlaid by October

MADURAI: The long due overlaying of the nearly 180km poorly maintained Virudhunagar - Kanyakumari stretch of the four-lane National Highway will be completed by October 19 this year, stated project director of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) – PIU, Madurai, and public information officer V Saravanan in a reply to RTI queries raised by activist cum engineer A Pandiaraja.
Saravanan said bituminous overlay would be done for the stretch. The overlay would be done for the main carriageway and service roads.
To a question on the periodicity of the maintenance, the project director stated maintenance of the road would be done as per Schedule F of the concession agreement and that overlay would be carried out based on the condition of the road with respect to roughness, rutting and riding quality.
The officials said that at present there is no plan to close four toll collection plazas between Kappalur and Nanguneri. “It will be decided by the competent authority based on the actual expenditure and revenue for the particular toll plaza,” he added.
The capital cost of these four four-lane projects is Rs 2,114 crore – Kappalur toll plaza (Rs 454.66 crore), Etturvattam toll plaza (Rs 558.11 crore), Salaipudhur toll plaza (Rs 552.02 crore) and Nanguneri toll plaza (Rs 549.16 crore). This is in addition to the capital cost of the projects the operational and maintenance expenses incurred so far has been stated as Rs 127.88 crore.
The operational and maintenance cost includes Rs 79.69 crore at Kappalur toll plaza which is the highest among the four.
It may be recalled that the Madurai - Virudhunagar section of the National Highway was re-laid for a stretch of 50 km following the intervention of the Madras high court.
The total operational and maintenance expenses incurred in the three other stretches only amounts to Rs 48.18 crore at Salaipudhur (Rs 20.81 crore), Etturvattam (Rs 19.28 crore) and Nanguneri (Rs 8.08 crore).
Rs 1,079.09 crore has been collected as toll at the four toll plazas from Kappalur to Nanguneri that covers nearly 227 kmsfrom Kappalur to Kanyakumari from the year 2011-12 to August 2020. Annual toll collection in the toll plazas that was Rs 42.92 crore (before it began at Kappalur toll plaza) 2011-12 has climbed year on year to Rs 197.95 in 2019-20.
Of the four toll plazas the highest collection till August 2020 is Rs 276.75 crore at the Nanguneri toll plaza, closely followed by Rs 174.58 crore at the Salaipudhur toll plaza, Rs 271.05 crore at the Etturvattam toll plaza and Rs 243.54 crore at the Kappalur toll plaza.