Toll collection stopped at Rohini Toll Plaza

REZA PRADHAN

DARJEELING,: As announced earlier by Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, toll collection at the Rohini Toll Plaza - the most frequently used gateway connecting the plains to the hills - was stopped from Monday.

The Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), which had been demanding the closure of the toll collection point, welcomed the move and celebrated by distributing sweets to motorists passing through the plaza on Monday.

GNLF Kurseong Division Branch president Nima Lama said, “This route was built by our late leader Subash Ghisingh as an alternative to NH-55 (now NH-110). We are against toll tax collection here as the road was built for the people and they should not have to pay to use it. We welcome the stoppage of toll collection from today.”

GNLF Kurseong branch members gathered at the Rohini Toll Plaza on Monday and put up posters thanking Bista and party president Mann Ghisingh for the development. A poster of late leader Subash Ghisingh was also installed at the site. The road stretch had been named after him a few years ago.

Earlier this month, the GNLF had forcefully stopped toll collection for less than a day before it was resumed the same evening. The party had also submitted a memorandum to the district administration demanding the closure of the toll plaza.

The closure also follows an order issued by the West Bengal government last month directing that all toll gates, drop gates, barricaded structures and operational collection points across the State that had not been duly approved or authorised by the government be shut down.

Meanwhile, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chief executive Anit Thapa maintained that the toll tax collected at the plaza was used for the maintenance of the Rohini road stretch. He appealed to the State government to transfer the road to the Public Works Department (PWD) to ensure its proper upkeep.

The toll plaza was commissioned in December 2013 and covered the 11-km stretch from Kurseong town’s Zero Point to the Rohini Toll Plaza. Toll collection was waived in 2018 when the GTA was headed by former chairman Binay Tamang, but was resumed in October 2019.