Kasaragod: Manjeshwar MLA A K M Ashraf on Monday announced an indefinite sit-in protest against Kerala's first toll plaza on the newly built six-lane NH 66, alleging that it flies in the face of rules laid down by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH).

Addressing a press conference in Kasaragod, Ashraf said he, along with the people's action committee, would begin the sit-in at the Arikkady toll plaza in Kumbla on Tuesday, January 13. "The Kumbla toll plaza violates the rule that people cannot be forced to pay a user fee twice on the same highway within a 60-kilometre stretch," he said.

On Monday, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) began collecting tolls for the 39-km Talapady-Chengala stretch of NH 66 at Kumbla, just about 20 km away from an existing toll plaza at Talapady on the same highway. By 7 am, around a thousand people had gathered at the toll plaza in protest. Police barricaded the area to prevent vandalism, but the move choked the highway during peak office and school hours.

Toll collection resumed around 10 am after police arrested protest leaders, including MLA Ashraf, ending a three-hour standoff.

Under the rates notified at Kumbla, cars are charged ₹85 one-way and ₹130 for a return journey. Residents point out that once they cross into Karnataka, barely 20 km away, they have to pay again at the Talapady toll plaza: ₹55 one way and ₹80 for a return trip.

For residents of Kumbla travelling to nearby Mangaluru, this means paying ₹140 one-way and ₹210 round-trip, a daily burden for hundreds who live and work across the Kerala-Karnataka border.

Ashraf said NHAI's decision to open the toll plaza was particularly indefensible because a writ petition filed by the Action Committee challenging the Kumbla toll plaza is still pending before the High Court.

When the case last came up on November 14, 2025, Justice V G Arun asked NHAI to produce the permission that allowed the toll plaza at Kumbla, said petitioner Asharaf Mohammed, alias Asharaf Karla, a former Kasaragod Block Panchayat member and Action Committee leader. "NHAI has not answered that question yet," he said.

On Sunday, January 11, Kumbla police convened a meeting to resolve the deadlock between NHAI and the Action Committee. We asked NHAI officials to produce the sanction order along with the reasons for allowing the toll plaza at Kumbla. They could not produce it," Karla said.

He also pointed out that the Kumbla toll plaza does not have a green channel for ambulances. Given Kasaragod's heavy dependence on hospitals in Mangaluru for emergency healthcare, this omission could prove dangerous, he said.

District collector K Inbasekar said he had no role in the matter, even though MoRTH guidelines clearly say toll plazas must be located at places acceptable to the State government as well.

What the rules actually say
Rule 8(2) of the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, states that no toll plaza can be established within 60 km of another plaza on the same stretch of highway. If this rule is to be relaxed, the reasons must be recorded in writing and prior approval obtained from the competent authority.

Over the years, MoRTH has repeatedly warned NHAI against its growing tendency to rely on this exception and sidestep the 60-km rule.

In a letter dated September 5, 2017, addressed to the NHAI chairman, the ministry made it mandatory that toll plaza locations strictly follow what is proposed in the Detailed Project Report (DPR), which itself must comply with the 2008 Rules. Any deviation would require written justification and prior approval from the competent authority.

In a follow-up communication on November 2, 2018, the ministry noted that "several" toll plazas were often being set up first and approvals sought later, a practice it explicitly objected to. As a one-time measure, it allowed such plazas to operate temporarily but ordered that they be relocated to legally compliant sites within two years.

For all projects under execution, and those awarded after 2017, user fee plazas must strictly conform to the NH Fee Rules, 2008, the 2018 letter said.

The warning was reiterated in July 2023, when MoRTH said that in "many" fee notification proposals received by the ministry, relaxations from distance norms were being sought through ex-post facto approvals by NHAI, a practice not in line with Ministry guidelines.

The ministry made it clear that toll plaza locations must conform to Rules 8(1) [no toll plaza within 10km from municipality boundaries] and 8(2) at the DPR or planning stage itself. Any deviation must be approved by the competent authority at the stage of DPR acceptance or land acquisition, not later.

Notification without reasons
Despite these repeated warnings from MoRTH, the ministry itself, through a Gazette notification dated November 4, 2025, authorised NHAI to levy and collect toll at Kumbla for the Talapady-Chengala stretch of NH 66. The notification specifies the toll rates but does not spell out the reasons for allowing a toll plaza just 20 km from an existing one.

NHAI is relying on this notification and a High Court verdict to justify toll collection. While the Action Committee's case was pending, CPM leader and Kumbla area committee secretary C A Zubair also approached the High Court, challenging the toll plaza on the Talapady-Chengala stretch built by the Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS). As per the rule, the toll plaza should come up at Chalingal near Periya in the Chengala-Nileshwar stretch built by MEGHA.

A single bench of Justice N Nagaresh dismissed Zubair's petition on August 13, 2025, observing that the competent authority had invoked Rule 8(2) and that NHAI had cited reasons for setting up the plaza. Zubair appealed against the verdict before the division bench but withdrew his petition. He was conspicuously absent from Monday's protest.

To be sure, the Action Committee includes all political parties, except the BJP.

Committee leaders point out that the sanction order relied upon by the court was signed by the NHAI Kannur project director, Jaspreet, not by MoRTH, precisely the kind of procedural shortcut the ministry had repeatedly warned against.

NHAI has contracted the Gurgaon-based Skylark Group to operate the Kumbla toll plaza, the same company that runs the controversial Kherki Daula toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon stretch of NH-8. Parliamentary disclosures by MoRTH in April 2025 showed that nationwide toll collections had already exceeded construction costs by 9%, yet toll collection continues.

Closer home, Ashraf cited Surathkal near Mangaluru, where a “temporary” toll plaza set up for eight months ended up collecting toll for eight years, until sustained public protests forced its removal last year.

Ashraf said the indefinite sit-in was against the impunity with which NHAI bends rules, and that the people of Kasaragod would not allow it to pass unchallenged.