A few days after Transport Minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi said five of the eight tollgates belonging to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) were illegal, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Saturday said it was not appropriate to say that these gates were illegal.
“These tollgates are constituted as per their (NHAI’s) guidelines. It is not appropriate to say that the tollgates are illegal as necessary permission was obtained from concerned authorities for their establishment,” Padhi said after chairing a high-level meeting with NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra. Padhi said the revised toll fee would be collected as per the NHAI notification.
But confusion prevailed as Transport Minister Majhi told reporters that the hiked toll fees have been shelved for the time being. On May 27, Majhi had informed the tollgates located at Pipili (Puri district), Manguli (Cuttack), Panikoili (Jajpur), Sergarh (Baleswar) and Baraguda (Bargarh) were set up illegally.