Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw joins TV Mohandas Pai to question need for toll plaza at airport road: ‘Bengaluru must…’

Biocon Ltd executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has joined former Infosys CFO TV Mohandas Pai in seeking the abolishment of the toll collection practice at Bengaluru airport.

There has been an online demand questioning the requirement for a toll plaza on NH 44 near Devanahalli, which takes passengers to the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. Over the past decade, the toll plaza has generated a total of ₹1,577 crore.

Here is what she said?

In an X post, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said, “A justified demand to remove toll plaza at #Devanahalli before entering Bengaluru airport. Agree with @TVMohandasPai, Bengaluru must be brought at par with other cities.”

On Wednesday, venture capitalist TV Mohandas Pai had criticised the government’s idea of keeping an NH toll plaza right before the road to the airport, saying that it is unfair to Bengaluru to have a toll road leading to the airport. He cited that no other city in India charges such a fee.

Tagging Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, Pai took to X and wrote, “No airport in India has a toll road before it. Why this discrimination against Bengaluru? Toll should be for the Bellary Road after the airport.”

What data says?

Gadkari, while responding to fee collections on national highways, said in Rajya Sabha that the Devanahalli toll plaza had collected ₹308 crore in revenue during FY 2023-24.

Also, revealing the official data, a report by the Economic Times stated that the Devanahalli toll gate generated ₹1,577 crore over the past decade. This makes it Karnataka’s highest revenue-generating toll plaza.

The previous peak collection at Devanahalli toll gate was Rs187 crore in 2018-19, while in 2023-24, the second and third-highest toll collections were recorded at the Karjeevanhally toll plaza ( ₹230 crore) and the Guilalu toll plaza ( ₹173 crore).