NHAI to start operations at two new toll plazas in Vijayawada from today

Vijayawada: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to commence the toll operations at the Venkatayapalem and Vedurupavuluru toll plazas from April 1. Further, the Pottipadu toll plaza, which falls under the NHAI Vijayawada Project Implementation Unit (PIU) jurisdiction, will cease to exist as the existing toll plaza will be replaced with the new Vedurupavuluru toll plaza on the bypass stretch.The NHAI has already thrown open the entire 47-kilometre Vijayawada West Bypass stretch for vehicular traffic, in a phased manner, except for a 100-metre stretch at the vehicle underpass (VUP) at Nunna, where works are pending currently due to court cases.The 47-kilometre six-lane bypass road, which starts from Chinna Avutapalli to Kaza, offers significant relief to Vijayawada city by bypassing the heavy vehicular traffic on both the Kolkata-Chennai national highway (NH-16) and Vijayawada-Hyderabad (NH-65), enabling the vehicles travelling towards Chennai from the Visakhapatnam side and vehicles travelling towards Visakhapatnam from Hyderabad to bypass Vijayawada city traffic from the west side of the city."The toll fees for vehicles at the Kaza toll plaza will come down as the NHAI will commence toll collection at the new Venkatapalem toll plaza on the bypass stretch. Until now, vehicle users at the Kaza toll plaza were required to pay toll fees for the distance between Chilakaluripeta and Kanaka Durgamma Varadhi. Henceforth, the toll fees at the Kaza toll plaza will be calculated only from the Chilakaluripeta to Kaza distance, reducing the toll fees for the vehicles at the Kaza toll plaza," NHAI Amaravati PIU project director Parvathi Sundaram told TOI.The West bypass features the Bahubali River Over Bridge (ROB), which starts at Gollapudi and lands near Chinna Kakani in Mangalagiri. The 47-kilometre-long bypass road has been executed under two packages, from Chinna Avutapalli to Gollapudi as one package and Gollapudi to Chinna Kakani as another package.