Bengaluru: Starting Friday, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will begin collecting tolls on the 42-km-long Dobbspet-Doddaballapur stretch of the Bengaluru Satellite Town Ring Road, three months after its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The toll charges will apply to all personal and commercial vehicles, excluding two-wheelers.
Toll collection will start at 8 am on Friday and continue until March 31, 2025.
Cars will pay Rs 105 for a single journey and Rs 155 for a return journey within 24 hours. Personal vehicles registered in the district where the toll plaza is located will be charged Rs 340. (See table)
The charges will be deducted from FASTag accounts at Hulikunte in Doddaballapur taluk, Bengaluru Rural district.
"The Hulikunte toll plaza is Karnataka's second boothless toll plaza. It has no manned toll counters," KB Jayakumar, Project Director (Bengaluru), NHAI, told DH.
According to him, a vehicle's number plate and weight will be scanned as soon as it reaches within 50 metres of the toll plaza. If the toll is paid through FASTag and everything else is in order, the boom barrier will open and the vehicle will be let out, he explained.
Vehicles without FASTag will have to make a roundabout to pay the toll in cash.
This is the second stretch of the STRR where toll collection has begun. The NHAI started collecting toll at Nalluru on the Doddaballapur bypass-Hoskote stretch (34.15 km) on November 17, 2023.
Following a revision in toll charges on June 3, cars pay Rs 80 (single journey) and Rs 120 (return journey within 24 hours) for the Doddaballapur bypass-Hoskote stretch.
For both stretches (Dobbspet-Hoskote, 76.15 km), car drivers ay Rs 185 (single journey) and Rs 275 (return journey within 24 hours).
The 288-km STRR is being constructed to link Bengaluru with neighbouring towns such as Dobbspet, Devanahalli, Hoskote and Ramanagara.
Once fully ready, it will eliminate the need for long-distance commercial vehicles to enter Bengaluru. Traffic moving between satellite towns will also be able to bypass the city.
Project in 3 sections
The Rs 17,000-crore project is being developed in three sections.
The first section (Dobbspet-Hoskote-TN border, 101 km) is classified as National Highway 648.
The second section (7 km) is a part of the Bengaluru-Chennai Expressway (National Expressway 7).
The third section (Obalapura-Karnataka/TN border, 179.93 km) is called NH 948.
Only the Dobbspet-Hoskote stretch has been completed.