Noida, January 9
A 35-km stretch of national highway between Hapur and Moradabad, generating a revenue of Rs 272 crore between 2017 and 2021 has claimed nearly 900 lives during the same period, official data reveal.
The toll road under the Brijghat toll plaza falls on the national highway 24 between its 58-km to 93-km milestones and is a key connecting route for the people travelling between Delhi and interiors of UP or towards Nainital in Uttarakhand.
The data has been shared by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in reply to a query filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by Noida-based social activist Amit Gupta.
The total project cost is Rs 195.51 crore while a sum of over Rs 272 crore was collected in toll from 2017-18 till November 2021, the NHAI said.
It also mentioned that the recovery of the user fees on the Brijghat Toll Plaza is scheduled to continue till May 27, 2041, said the RTI reply accessed by PTI.
On deaths that took place on roads under the Brijghat Toll Plaza area, the NHAI said 136 people had died in 2018-19, 184 in 2019-20, 326 in 2020-2021 and 238 between April and November 2021 in the ongoing financial year.
Gupta had sought the death data for the last 10 years but the NHAI said it had no record for the year 2017-18 and prior to it. The NHAI also said it has no record of the number of complaints related to damages or bad roads on the 35-km stretch.
“No separate budget is allocated for the repair for the stretch under the Brijghat toll plaza. However, a sum of Rs 5,39,72,337 has been spent on the maintenance and repair from Garhmukteshwar to Moradabad,” Rakesh Kumar Sood, the general manager-cum-project director for NHAI’s project implementation unit in Moradabad stated in the reply.
According to information available on the NHAI website, the Brijghat toll plaza has a design capacity for handling 60,000 vehicles a day and had daily traffic of 46,360 vehicles in March 2017.
