The Madras High Court, on Tuesday (July 8, 2025), ordered that Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) buses shall not be allowed to ply through the toll plazas maintained by four concessionaires on the national highways leading to the southern districts of the State from July 10.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said, he had no choice but to take the extreme step of preventing public transportation through the toll plazas since the State transport department had not taken steps to settle arrears of ₹276 crore to the four National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) concessionaires.

‘Deploy police’

Conscious of passing a shocking order that could lead to law and order situation, the judge directed the Director General of Police/Head of Police Force (DGP/HoPF) to ensure deputation of adequate police force at Kappalur, Etturavattam, Salaipudhur and Nanguneri toll plazas to prevent untoward incidents.

The judge directed the High Court Registry to mark a copy of his interim order to the DGP as well as the Inspector General of Police (south zone) for compliance in letter and spirit and decided to take stock of the situation on July 15.

The concessionaires

Madurai-Kanniyakumari Tollway Private Limited, Kanniyakumari-Etturavattam Tollway Private Limited, Salaipudur-Madurai Tollway Private Limited and Nanguneri-Kanniyakumari Tollway Private Limited had approached the court last year by filing individual writ petitions.

Senior counsel Sathish Parasaran, representing the writ petitioners, contended that his clients had been suffering huge losses due to the failure of Tamil Nadu government buses to pay toll charges despite using the national highways for transporting their passengers.

No Fastag

He said, most of the government buses also do not have Fastag facility in violation of the rules framed by the Centre. Mr. Parasaran said, the toll plaza staff could not dare to stop the buses, for non-payment of toll, because of the fear of it snowballing into a law and order situation.

It was brought to the notice of the court that the State transport corporations had settled only about ₹48.5 crore and that still ₹276 crore (including the principal amount of ₹116 crore apart from penalty and interest) was yet to be paid to the four NHAI concessionaires.

After recording the submissions, Justice Venkatesh said, the amount might end up growing to over ₹300 to ₹400 crore if the transport corporations continue to prolong the issue without quickly sitting across the table with the concessionaires in order to settle the dues.

He also observed the government officials may not understand the seriousness of the issue and act swiftly unless an extreme step of stopping the buses at the toll plazas was resorted to. He said, the corporations had brought such a precarious situation upon themselves thereby adversely affecting the common people.