Collect only 50% toll till highway is repaired: HC directs NHAI
[ad_1]
The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to gather only 50% of the toll on the two cubicles located between the Maduravoyal and Ranipet stretch of the National Highway 48, which connects Chennai and Bengaluru.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha mentioned only half of the toll quantity ought to be collected till the NHAI makes use of scientific strategies to restore the highway stretch, which is coated with deep craters and potholes.
When Assistant Solicitor-General G. Karthikeyan instructed the court docket that the highway can be repaired inside 10 days, the judges requested him to make a point out earlier than the court docket after finishing the work in order that the interim order may very well be vacated.
The order was handed on a suo motu public curiosity litigation (PIL) petition taken up by the court docket final 12 months, primarily based on a letter written by Justice Sathyanarayanan to Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi concerning the poor upkeep of the stretch regardless of the gathering of toll.
Expressing anguish over the NHAI not sustaining the stretch correctly even after the court docket took suo motu cognisance of the problem, the judges mentioned they had been bored with listening to repeated statements that the stretch can be repaired on the earliest.
Stating that the NHAI ought to no less than try to take care of the nationwide highways as per the Indian Road Congress norms, the Bench identified the absence of correct lighting services, signal boards and reflectors on the stretch.
They questioned why the NHAI was not laying all-weather roads and why it at all times went for short-term patch work that didn’t final lengthy.
The judges mentioned the day was not far when anyone who met with an accident as a result of situation of the street would come to the NHAI for compensation.
The judges additionally took judicial observe of the dying of a 50-year-old girl and her 20-year-old daughter, after their two-wheeler skidded they usually fell into an open storm water canal abutting the Irumbuliyar-Maduravoyal bypass service street on Sunday.
After directing the NHAI to pay compensation to the victims’ household, the decide recorded the submission of Mr. Karthikeyan that every one storm water drains abutting nationwide highways can be coated.
[ad_2]
