[amitwiz1]

Hope it does! I wouldn't mind paying 50 for an elevated road, to avoid the peak time rush of . This might just cut my travel time in half..

[hrman]

Latest news:
The toll on the KIAL (Bangalore airport) road has increased to Rs.75 one way and Rs.115/- for a same day return (from Rs.30). Brace up for paying higher for hiring cabs and travelling by bus.

The NHAI has refused to go back on the increase. Commercial vehicles and cabbies are threatening to go on strike from 9th May, if the increase is not rolled back.

Given that the flyovers etc make the journey enjoyable and save lots of time. I still personally feel the increase is too high. An amount of Rs.30 one way and Rs.50 return is still acceptable.

Link to TOI article:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/34659280.cms

[asdon]

Very surprising, and how NHAI is going to ensure they are not going to charge the toll from the commuters who are not using the elevated road? The road is not access controlled, and Rs 75 for 20 km streach is too much...

[Voyager-1]

This is ridiculous pricing. This obviously points to mismanagement of contracts and the public end up paying for it.

[WindRide]

Do i still have to pay 115/- as toll to and fro BIAL even if i do not take the elevated stretch from Hebbal and prefer to go by the road beneath it? Is there even such an option?

[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Do i still have to pay 115/- as toll to and fro BIAL even if i do not take the elevated stretch from Hebbal and prefer to go by the road beneath it? Is there even such an option?

You will eventually end up at the toll booth from driving on either of the roads. So yes you are entitled to pay 115/-Rs at the booth.

[Secretariat]

I can understand the angst due to a sudden hike from Rs 30 to Rs 115, but let me politely argue a contrarian point of view.

The road from Hebbal to the airport is now superb - numerous flyovers have virtually eliminated all signals. This is infrastructure at its best, something of a rarity in Bangalore. The project cost some Rs 220 crores. For this sort of world class infrastructure, that is the cost we have to pay. There is zero case for any subsidy - the road is largely used by the rich and the principle of the user paying must be protected.

Certainly NHAI/government is to be faulted for the way this has been implemented

• Just tripling tolls overnight without "preparing" the users is a spectacular own goal

• Lack of transparency of both the investment and the economics leads us to believe that somebody is skimming somewhere , which is the norm usually in India. However in this case my back of the envelope calculations assuming a capital cost of Rs 200 crores indicates not massive skimming. Even the investment costs of Rs 200 crores is unlikely to have been hugely inflated (remember land prices and the cost of constructing in a major city) - yes some leakage surely, but not massive.

I don't like the toll either, but at least the road is there and it is world class. What absolutely infuriates me is when they collect tolls and we have atrocious roads . I would rather pay Rs 115 and have a good road than Rs 17.50 for a moon crater experience.

We must get around to the reality that tolls will be high if we want good roads. If we burn the toll gates, then we will get the wonderful roads of Bangalore we are used to. I would much rather agitate for the high levels of road tax collected and the absolute disgrace of the city roads.

Just a humble opinion - don't mean to offend anybody !

[msdivy]

This was in news yesterday - How vested interests ensured an alternative toll-free road to B’lore airport hits a wall

There was plan to construct 4 lane road via Thanisandra and Mylanahalli to airport, but was abandoned.

[zoombiee]

This is day light robbery. I agree with what @Secretariat says. People can choose to pay for great roads. However, is there an alternate road that has been provided? An existing road which never had any toll (till BIAL came along) has been taken and made a tolled road. This not only affects the rich, but also not so rich, since this road is used by many people to travel to Bellary/AP (Hyd). I think we must start charting out alternate roads which do not have any toll. This way people who have an issue paying the toll have decent alternative.

Now lets come to costing -

I think BIAL handles about 12 million passengers annually. Assuming that this needed 1 million to and fro trips and at 115 per trip this would amount to 11,50,00,000. Assuming the non BIAL traffic on this road would be atleast 3X the BIAL traffic, this would mean about 35-36 crores per year and a break even of about 7 years (not accounting interest to be paid out in case of debt). So a toll of 115 may seem fair from a investors perspective.

[maheshramaling]

Originally Posted by zoombiee

This is day light robbery. I agree with what @Secretariat says. People can choose to pay for great roads. However, is there an alternate road that has been provided? An existing road which never had any toll (till BIAL came along) has been taken and made a tolled road. This not only affects the rich, but also not so rich, since this road is used by many people to travel to Bellary/AP (Hyd). I think we must start charting out alternate roads which do not have any toll. This way people who have an issue paying the toll have decent alternative.

Now lets come to costing -

I think BIAL handles about 12 million passengers annually. Assuming that this needed 1 million to and fro trips and at 115 per trip this would amount to 11,50,00,000. Assuming the non BIAL traffic on this road would be atleast 3X the BIAL traffic, this would mean about 35-36 crores per year and a break even of about 7 years (not accounting interest to be paid out in case of debt). So a toll of 115 may seem fair from a investors perspective.

Assuming that the road is used by trucks, buses and other vehicles - the toll collected from them being higher than INR 115 (like rest of the toll roads) - the break-even will be earlier! Or is the rate flat for all vehicles?

I agree that we should be happy to pay toll for a good road - but typically the rates in rest of the toll roads comes to around INR 1 to 2 per km. Even Nice road or yamuna expressway or the L&T roads (in bangalore - chennai highway) - follow this method & they all are very good highways. If the total length is 40kms (two way) - it comes to around INR 2.8 per km.

Guess - hosur road elevated express way also charges INR 65 for a 18+ km (two-way) elevated road. So - the cost is higher because the construction cost is higher to build elevated one?

[zoombiee]

Originally Posted by maheshramaling

I agree that we should be happy to pay toll for a good road - but typically the rates in rest of the toll roads comes to around INR 1 to 2 per km. Even Nice road or yamuna expressway or the L&T roads (in bangalore - chennai highway) - follow this method & they all are very good highways. If the total length is 40kms (two way) - it comes to around INR 2.8 per km.

Nice charges are somewhere between 3.50-4 Rs per km. The Bangalore Chennai should be about 1Rs per km. However, both Nice and Bangalore Chennai have viable non toll roads. Not the same here as of now. May be we need to discover some roads. Another unethical thing about this road was they started charging even before they had completed the whole thing. That was totally unethical.

[ajmat]

Key thing here is that for every toll road, there should be an alternative road unless it is using a critical piece of infrastructure like a bridge,.

Examples are
1: Electronic city - pay and use expressway or go underneath
2: NICE Road - pay go use or the alternative roads
3: Worli sea link - either take the long way or take the bridge

In this case, there is no alternative. The government should have kept the toll nominal or made the service roads usable and then charged a higher toll for the expressway

On one hand, the government should have raised the toll slowly. Again, you find the passengers are not complaining too much and the taxi folks really do not pay anything since the cost will be passed onto the customer.

[Vid6639]

Even if there is no alternate road, the airport traffic should have been charged nominal rate whereas traffic going beyond can be charged full fare.

Charging 115 from airport traffic is clearly a minting money scheme. The heavy airport traffic will be churning money for NHAI like anything.

This should be the best solution.

They have plugged all holes. E-city elevated toll is Rs.65 for daily pass with unlimited entries but this airport toll is only for return if you take the daily pass. Same thing for monthly pass with restriction of 50 times. This is clearly targeted at airport traffic. Too clever from NHAI.

This is a proper money making scam.

[sdp1975]

The 3 fold rise in the toll fees is quite shocking , particularly when there's no alternate route.

What's the state government doing ? They should lodge a strong protest with NHAI , and also consider the feasibility of constructing an alternate route to avoid this fleecing.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by msdivy

This was in news yesterday - How vested interests ensured an alternative toll-free road to B’lore airport hits a wall

There was plan to construct 4 lane road via Thanisandra and Mylanahalli to airport, but was abandoned.
Attachment 1238528

Good article. As it stands today, only 1.5km separates SH104 from the KIAL arterial road.
http://goo.gl/maps/ol4bl

Anyway SH104 meanders around KIAl and ultimately meets SH207 on the NE side of KIAL - another 'back-gate' option is very much possible there!
http://goo.gl/maps/zv5uy

Frankly, these are wholly political issues without any rational basis. They should definitely open these alternative roads for users who do NOT have any major rush to reach the airport and vice versa.

One factor to keep in mind is that at least commuting via SH104 will take significantly longer due to the design of the road itself, speedbreakers, congested towns/villages etc.

In my humble opinion, most airport users will still continue to take the toll road and pay the 115 bucks!