Tag: toll

Irritating Staff at Toll Points


Getting irritated by the behaviour of toll point staffs…

Today started my drive down to Chennai from Pollachi… My toll started from Coimbatore L&T toll and the toll charge was ₹31 and I gave him ₹50…

The staff sitting on the booth asked for ₹1 or ₹2 or ₹5… When I said I didn’t have change, he made so much fuss & facial gestures before tendering the change…

In the next toll the toll cost is ₹80 & I gave ₹500… The toll staff here showed his frustration by asking what will he do if I give 500 bucks in the morning..

I told the second toll guy that even I’m frustrated paying Toll in spite of paying Road Tax, Income Tax, Service Tax, Sales Tax and many more taxes…

I asked if I’ve option to evade that toll? He said no choice… I told him two things and moved;

  1. He has no choice but to serve me..
  2. He is a public servant and he has to service politely…

Then in my 7th toll point the cost of toll was ₹47 and when I gave him ₹50 he tendered only ₹2… When I asked him for ₹1 he said he is not having change for ₹1…


I told him that is not my problem and I said I’m not moving without my ₹1… Then he went to next counter and got my change back… Again he gave me a staring look…

This is my 7 toll for the day and there were issues with 3 tolls and I’ve 4 more toll points cross… 

There are many other irritating things in tolls like;

  • They give very old/damaged notes as change.. When we ask for a replacement they show gestures…
  • When we accept old/damaged notes and offer the same in next tolls, mostly they deny accepting it…

I don’t have issues accepting such notes provided every toll accepts them…

Also the congestion caused at the toll points is another frustration where we are made to wait for a tax we pay..

These days I’ve accepted such situations and I’ve built an expertise to deal with this toll folks… When I see a person showing attitude I revert back by showing mine…

One experience with a toll staff who denied taking a damaged ₹10 note which I got from a previous toll.. The toll fee was ₹53 and I gave him ₹1000 and I kept returning the change he offered me and frustrated him for 30 min… 

Though I had to become a nuisance for other travellers I wanted to do it to teach them a lesson…

I made the manager attend me and apologise on behalf of the staff… Then I wrote a formal complaint and moved..

I’m not sure if they moved my complaint… It’s been more than 6 months and I got no response from NHAI or the firm which got the contract to operate the Toll…

I’m planning to write a letter to about my experience to Nitin Gadkari under who’s ministry Highway Department comes… Let’s see how the ministry responds..

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Fight for your Right


Was driving back from Bangalore to Chennai and it was a midnight drive… Drive was soo please t from Bangalore till Ranipet toll… From Ranipet to SriPerambudur it was a pathetic road full of pits… Literally had to snail on this stretch and even if I accelerated I would have ended up on a pit…

I was very frustrated and angry for the quality of service we receive in spite of taxed in the name of TOLL… Upon reaching SriPrambudur toll I asked should I pay the toll for the quality of road and I was asked to talk to the Toll Manager… So, here goes the conversation;

Me: Who is responsible for the stretch between Ranipet and SriPerambudur?
Toll Manager: We are responsible..
Me: Do you know the condition of the stretch???
Toll Manager: We have taken photos and we will be fixing the patches soon…
Me: Ok… Does it make justice to pay toll for the service??
Toll Manager: No Sir!! Old contractor has been sacked and we just took charge fromYesterday…
Me: Why can’t you collect the toll after fixing the patches??
Toll Manager: Sir!!! You need not pay Toll… You can leave…

Thought the gentleman was gentle in allowing me…I was still not hot convinces because a lot of innocent people were taxed for using this bad stretch…

Angry as a CommonMan


Yesterday I booked tickets for the movie 180 at AGS Cinemas, Navalur… We were at the Perengudi toll by 9.30 PM & 1 way toll costs Rs.19… When I gave him Rs.20 the person in the counter asked me to collect the balance next day… That puzzled me as how can I collect the balance next day as I had no proof to claim… But as a commonman I igneored it as it is just Re.1… But I wondered inside;

Why on the earth the Toll company hasn’t rounded the tariff as Rs.20??

After watching the movie we went to Shollinganallur toll to exit by 1.15 AM… We were asked to pay again as the toll time gets over by 12 AM… I got annoyed as how come someone get a toll for just 3 hours… But to my surprise it is all well written in the toll receipt and I had to pay again…

That moment I got annoyed at me as I didn’t take the initiative to read the toll receipt… Then I thought why I ignored Re.1 which had to be paid back.. Why I’m not taking the initiative to write petitions, use RTI (Right to information) to understand how system works & why i’m not fighting for a cause…

The concern was not loosing Rs.20. or Re.1.. It is why there is no professionalism;

  • Why didn’t they have a change to give back as they very well know everyone cant carry Rs.19…
  • Why didn’t they round the fare to Rs.20?
  • Concept of cutting their timing by 12 AM sounds irrational…

I’m fed up of showering my frustration as blogs & ignoring issues… Now I’m on my way to Perengudi toll to collect information & I’ve decided to take them if there are exploitation of the common man…

One more enjoyable day


Reached home early in the morning after a boring Saturday party and straight away went to bed. Then I slept till the afternoon and had to wake up for two reasons;

  • Firstly it was my father’s birthday and had small party.
  • Second is I’ve fixed an appointment for second half of the day.

My sister woke me up to celebrate my father’s birthday. I must thank her for talking all these initiatives as I’m very bad at doing things like these. She has brought a cake as surprise and this is the first time we are celebrating my father’s birthday as he has always stayed away from us and I think this is the birthday where in he has stayed with us and we all as a family were at one place.

Since my father is a person who has very less desire we had nothing to gift him. So we thought of buying him some shares which he trades.

After the birthday party I rushed out to a place called Vedal near Periyapalayam to see a piece of plot. Again it was a finest drive which I longed for. We drove along old traditional roads of Tamil Nadu which were not affected by the expansion of highways. Then we travelled through a stretch of forest and finally came the spot.

I’m not sure if this place develops immediately or not. I’d love to buy a piece of plot as it is within my affordability and its been 3 years since I purchased a land. Also there are small mountains and it would be a perfect place to have a small bamboo house and spend peaceful time or also we can party hard as it doesn’t disturb anyone.

From there we went to the famous PeriyaPalayam Amman temple which is visited almost 15 years back and a lot have changed since then. Since it is a normal day temple was not crowded and we had a nice darshan.

Then while driving back we spent all the money and neither of us had a single penny. After a long time my bank account has gone empty and I’ve been living with credit card for last 10 days.  While returning we didn’t realize that there was a toll. Then we were thinking what to do and one of my friends asked me to get all the old toll tickets in hand. We thought we can elope by the time the toll keeper checks the right ticket.

To our surprise the toll has a barricade where in we can proceed without paying. Also the toll rate was Rs.31 and we didn’t have anything other than credit card. Then with brave face my friend gave all 5 toll tickets to the toll keeper and asked him to check which the right ticket is. Without even checking he opened the gates asking us to leave. We didn’t know if he realized if we were conning him or he didn’t have patience to check all the tickets.

It was a thrilling experience and for long I wanted to explore things without any money on hand. I always thought of putting myself in such a situation and it happened today. I’m thankful to god for creating such an opportunity and I want to be on similar situations even in future.

Over all it has been a very interesting and heart filling day as; 

  • I celebrated my father’s birthday.
  • Went for site visits to buy land which is one of my hobbies.
  • Went to a temple which I use to visit as a kid.
  • And for the first time I experienced a situation to manage without money.