Tamil Manila Congress youth wing, on Friday, held an agitation urging an immediate halt to the collection of fees at Athupalam Toll Plaza.

As many as 70 members gathered near the toll gate and raised slogans against the Central Government to take action against L&T from collecting fees for vehicles using the Noyal bridge and to reduce its fare by 50 per cent throughout the state.

Agitators trying to move towards the toll plaza were blocked by the police personnel and arrested and kept at Kumaran Mandapam at Kovaipudur.

Tamil Manila Congress South youth wing Secretary J. Sarath Vignesh told the media that if the Government did not take any action regarding the toll fee issue their party would hold agitations every day.

Traffic in the area was affected for some time due to the protest.

Suresh, manager in-charge of the Athupalam Toll Plaza, denied the charges being raised by the public and parties protesting against it and said that the Toll Plaza was constructed and opened on August 21, 1998 and L&T started collecting toll from December 12, 1998.

He added that the Toll Plaza records issued by the Ministry of Surface Transport allowed them to collect toll fee till 2018. A case was filed in the Madras High Court regarding the collection of toll fee and an interim order was passed to collect tolls till the contract date.

He added that due to insufficient support by local administration they had stopped colleting toll fees from local vehicles, and fee was being collected only from outstation vehicles.