Motorists travelling through the Navalur toll plaza have now got a reason to rejoice!!
A proposal has been submitted by the TNRDC or Tamil Nadu Road Development Corporation to TN government to close down the toll plaza at Navalur on the OMR or Rajiv Gandhi Salai in Chennai. The reason for that was due to the ongoing metro rail phase-2 works. It is now brought to light that many representations given by the local residents associations to stop user fee collection at the toll plaza here.
An official from TNRDC spoke about how a proposal has been sent to the TN govt to close down the toll plaza at Navalur on OMR in Chennai. He hinted that the toll plaza would be closed after getting the approval.
It must be recalled that in August 2021 as many as 4 toll plazas in places like Perungudi, Thoraipakkam Medavakkam- Sholinganallur Road and ECR-OMR Link Road were closed. The reason was due to the metro rail works. The barricading done to carry out the metro rail works have affected the traffic and this was as per some officers from TNRDC. He added that numerous petitions have been received from the local residents regarding closing down of the toll plaza at Navalur. The toll plaza at Navalur collects an amount of Rs 6.5lakhs per day on an average.
The decision taken by TNRDC to close down the toll plaza at Navalur has been appreciated by many now. It was later mentioned by Mr. Harsha Koda, Federation of OMR Residents Association that the long pending would come to an end due to the efforts of all FOMRRA volunteers and due to Mr. SS. Balaji, MLA from Thiruporur in Chennai.
Mr. Harsha Koda explained how in the last 5 months OMR residents have requested the TN govt several times to close down the toll plaza. It must be noted that here the road space and service roads have been shrinking because of the ongoing metro works.
It is noteworthy that corridor 3 from Madhavaram to Siruseri SIPCOT of CMRL corridor runs along the OMR from Taramani to Siruseri.