Toll effect: KSRTC bus travel on Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway costs more

 

Commuters travelling in KSTRC buses on the newly inaugurated Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway will have to shell out more toward bus fare.

The fare hike has been prompted due to toll collection by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on a portion of the 119-km Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway.

Resultantly passengers KSRTC would levy a user fee of Rs 15 for travellers on Karnataka Sarige buses, while those on Rajahamsa buses and other/multi-axle buses will pay Rs 18 and Rs 20, respectively.

KSRTC in a statement said that the user fee will only be levied on passengers travelling on buses that exclusively run on the expressway.

The NHAI began toll collection on the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta stretch of the expressway on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, several outfits staged protests at a toll plaza near here on Tuesday, opposing the NHAI’s decision to levy charges without proper service roads and passes for local residents. Opposition Congress workers too joined the protesters and held demonstrations.

The protesters are opposed to collecting toll fees until the entire project is completed. They have also expressed reservations regarding service roads not being built, and the toll rate fixed being too high.

On March 12, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the 118-km Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway project here. It will reduce the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru from around three hours to about 75 minutes, according to officials.

The Rs 8,480 crore project involved six-laning of the Bengaluru-Nidaghatta-Mysuru section of NH-275, and will act as a catalyst for socio-economic development in the region, they said.

 

With PTI inputs