No hike in toll on Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway, announces MP Pratap Simha

BENGALURU: With much outcry over hiking the toll on the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway from April 1, which was formally opened to the public less than three weeks ago, Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha on Saturday announced that the hike in toll has been withheld.

In a one-line tweet in Kannada, he said, “The hike in toll on the Mysuru-Bengaluru expressway has been withheld. Thank you”.

ಮೈಸೂರು – ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಎಕ್ಸ್ಪ್ರೆಸ್ ವೇ ಟೋಲ್ ಬೆಲೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚಳವನ್ನು ತಡೆಹಿಡಿಯಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಧನ್ಯವಾದಗಳು. https://t.co/mujHAtcEh9

— Prathap Simha (@mepratap) April 1, 2023

On Friday, Pratap Simha had posted a video message on social media wherein he said, “”The toll was started on March 14 and was fixed at Rs 135 for the journey between Bengaluru and Nidaghatta and it has been proposed to increase it to Rs 165 from April 1. The toll on all toll roads under the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways across the country is being hiked by a minimum of 7 per cent across the country with effect from April 1, and this is not exclusive to the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway”.

He further said that since it had been only 17 days since the toll was started, hiking it so soon would not seem fair. “I have appealed to the NHAI chairman, the project director, chief engineer Vivek Jaiswal not to increase the toll since some works are still going on. After all the works are completed, we can rethink about increasing the toll”, he had said in the video message.