Shell out more soon as toll plaza at Sanwara set to be functional

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, April 12

Commuters travelling on the Parwanoo-Solan section of the National Highway No. 5 will have to pay more as a toll plaza on the newly widened highway at Sanwara will soon start functioning. This will be the second toll that a person entering the state from Parwanoo will have to pay. Already, the State Excise and Taxation Department collects toll at an inter-state plaza at Parwanoo.

Suresh Sharma, Project Director, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), says that the Udaipur-based Coral Associates has been given the tender to collect the toll for the first three months, after which it will be re-allocated.

A toll of Rs 55 has been fixed for cars, jeeps, vans or light motor vehicles for a one-way journey and Rs 85 for both sides. For light commercial vehicles and mini-buses, Rs 90 will be the one-way charge while it will be Rs 190 for a bus or a truck. Three axles commercial vehicles will have to pay Rs 210 for a one-way journey while a heavy construction machinery will have to shell out Rs 300. A monthly pass for locals residing within 20 km of the toll plaza will be available for Rs 285 for non-commercial mechanical vehicles.

Vehicles without fastags will have to pay double the toll to pass through the eight-lane plaza — four each for the uphill and downhill traffic.

Private company GR Infraprojects has completed nearly 95 per cent of the work to widen the 39-km stretch from Parwanoo to Solan to four lanes. “We have received the completion certification from the NHAI, as 95 per cent work has been completed. This will pave the way for the toll plaza at Sanwara to start functioning,” says Balwinder Singh, Project Manager, GRI.

An ambulance, a patrolling vehicle and a recovery van will remain stationed near the toll plaza where a control room has also been set up. Seventeen emergency call boxes with solar panels, batteries and solar chargers have also been set up on the entire 39-km stretch and a person in emergency can make a call and expect help within minutes.

Assigned for 30 months, the road widening work on the 39-km stretch had begun in September 2015. However, several problems such as the delay in land availability, the NGT halting the work for a few months and design-related issues cropped up, delaying the completion of the project. Around 95 per cent work has been completed, and the remaining work at Saproon, Kumarhatti and near Timber Trail Resorts, Parwanoo, is likely to be completed in the next few months.