HC slams brakes now but Paliyekkara toll plaza collected ₹925 crore in 7 years

Even as the High Court suspended toll collections on Wednesday, sending the Paliyekkara toll plaza in Thrissur into an uncharacteristic lull, the numbers tell a different story. Over the past seven financial years, the Paliyekkara raked in ₹925 crore. This is way more than all other toll booths in Kerala.

Figures presented in Parliament by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways show that the plaza’s daily average takings stand at ₹5.33 lakh. In 2025 alone, up to the end of June, motorists have paid ₹46.25 crore at its gates. Annual collections at Paliyekkara toll plaza routinely cross the ₹100-crore mark.

Kerala has only a handful of such plazas—at Kumbalam, Ponnarimangalam, Kollam, Thiruvallam, Panniyankara, Pampampallam, and Thiruvangad. Only Panniyankara and Pampampallam have joined Paliyekkara in crossing the ₹100-crore line in yearly revenues, though neither has matched its scale.

Paliyekkara’s operators have also faced scrutiny. In 2023, the Enforcement Directorate raided the offices of Guruvayur Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, which runs the toll under contract, over alleged corruption in building the Thrissur–Angamaly–Edappally section of National Highway 544. The agency reported freezing assets worth ₹125.21 crore belonging to Guruvayur Infrastructure, KMC Construction, and BRNL under Section 17(1)(A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 1999. This decision was later upheld by the Adjudicating Authority for PMLA in New Delhi.

The High Court’s order came in response to a clutch of petitions complaining of severe traffic congestion on the Mannuthy–Edappally stretch of NH-544, particularly near the toll gates and worsened by ongoing underpass projects sanctioned by the National Highways Authority of India. For now, the most lucrative toll plaza in Kerala has been forced to lift its barriers without charge.