It is a known fact that YSRC party government in Andhra Pradesh led by CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is facing severe financial crunch and it is exploring every opportunity to step up its revenues to run the government.
The officials are learnt to have given him an interesting idea to make some additional revenue, though not very huge – it is about collection of toll tax from people travelling on all state highways.
At present, toll tox is levied on travellers only on all national highways and only four major state highways in Andhra Pradesh that connect to the national highways.
The toll plazas are set up at every 60-90 kilometres and collect toll from people using the roads.
While major part of the toll fee goes to the contractor who constructs the highways till the concession period of the contractor expires, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) gets the remaining toll fee.
Now, the Jagan government is said to be contemplating setting up of toll plazas on all the state highways which have high traffic density.
The government claims that the toll fee collected from the passengers would go to State Roads Development Authority to be used for maintenance of highways.
A decision to this effect is expected to be taken at the state cabinet meeting to be held shortly.
In the first phase, as many as 35 state highways, including Kadapa-Pulivendula, Eluru-Jangareddygudem and Bhimavaram-Gudivada. If the experiment succeeds, toll fee collection would be done in the remaining 24 routes, sources said.
However, experts say the decision might receive severe backlash from commuters, as the condition of state highways is very bad due to lack of periodical maintenance and people might resist the toll collection without improving the road conditions.