Starting from November 17, commuters using the Doddaballapur-Hoskote segment of the Satellite Town Ring Road (STRR) will be required to pay toll charges. The STRR, spanning 288 km, aims to connect Bengaluru with neighboring towns like Dobbspet, Devanahalli, Hoskote, and Ramanagara. Its purpose is to divert long-distance commercial vehicles away from the city, allowing traffic between satellite towns to bypass Bengaluru.
The project, overseen by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore, is divided into 10 packages. The Doddaballapur bypass-Hoskote section, covering 34.15 km and featuring four lanes capable of handling 10,000 Passenger Car Units (PCU) per hour, has already been completed.
Toll charges for this section were officially notified in the Gazette of India on November 2 and subsequently approved by NHAI on November 9. The rates for light motor vehicles are set at Rs 70 for a one-way trip and Rs 105 for a round trip within 24 hours. Buses and trucks will be charged Rs 240 and Rs 360, respectively.
Toll collection will take place at the Nalluru toll plaza near Devanahalli until March 31, 2024, as confirmed by KB Jayakumar, Project Director at NHAI Bengaluru. Two-wheelers are exempt from toll charges, but reckless driving, such as performing wheelies, will be penalized.
A notable feature of the STRR is Karnataka’s first boothless toll plaza, which eliminates manned toll counters. Instead, vehicles will have their number plates and weights scanned within 50 meters of the toll plaza. FASTag users with compliant details will experience seamless passage as the boom barrier opens automatically. Those without FASTag will need to take an alternate route to pay tolls in cash.
Vehicles exceeding 105% of their permissible weight will face a tenfold penalty and must unload before proceeding, according to Jayakumar.
As for the progress of the remaining sections, the Dobbspet-Doddaballapur section (42 km) is 90% complete and expected to be ready in January 2024, with toll collection starting in February. Construction progress on the Hoskote-Tamil Nadu border section (21 km) stands at 13%, and the TN border-Obalapura stretch (179.93 km) is either under construction or in the bidding process.