Locals as well as businesses operating transport services on Patuakhali-Barisal Highway, running across the Payra river, are urging the authorities to revise the steep toll rates that have been posted ahead of the formal inauguration of the newly-built Payra bridge.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the four-lane bridge, constructed at a cost of Tk 1,447 crore, today (October 24) via a virtual programme at her Ganobhaban office. With seven kilometres of approach roads on both sides, the bridge is 1.47 kilometres long and 19.7 metres wide. The PM laid its foundation stone on March 19, 2013.
Locals said the toll rates, posted on both sides of the bridge recently, are unaffordable for the general public while transport business owners said if the toll rates are not lowered, the transport fares set by the authorities will also need to be increased to cover for the high toll charges.
The tolls set for different vehicles are as follows: trailer Tk 940, heavy truck Tk 750, medium truck Tk 375, large bus Tk 340, minibus Tk 190Tk 280, agricultural vehicle Tk 225, coaster Tk 190, microbus Tk 150, four-wheel drive Tk 150, sedan Tk 95, 3 to 4-wheeled mechanised vehicle Tk 40, motorcycle Tk 20, and rickshaw, rickshaw-van, bicycles or wheelbarrow Tk 10.
The tolls to cross the bridge are drawing flak from all quarters concerned, as those have been set two to 7.5 times higher than the fares being charged to cross the river on ferries operated by the government.
Riaz Uddin Mridha, president of Patuakhali Bus Minibus Owners' Association, said transport services operating on the Patuakhali-Barisal route run the risk of getting closed unless the tolls are revised.
Either the tolls for the bridge have to be reduced or the current bus fare of Tk 80 per passenger has to be increased to make the service viable, he claimed.
The issue of high toll rates is also causing a stir in the social media.
Writing on Facebook, one Wahiduzzaman said the bridge is definitely a big achievement for the government. "But since the money will come out of people's pockets, we have objections to the toll charges."
Bus driver Alamgir Hossain said the toll rates for the bridge should be lowered to a reasonable level, as the current rates are set too high.
Asked, Executive Engineer Mir Kamrul Hasan of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) in Patuakhali said toll rates for a bridge and fares for ferry services are entirely different.
The RHD is no part of setting the tolls as high-ups in the Road Transport and Highways Division and the ministry concerned determine the toll charges, he added.
