DND toll charges reduced by Rs 6 for cars on weekends

The Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited (NTBCL) has reduced the toll tax for cars plying on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi Flyway (DND) by Rs 6 on weekends only, officials said.

The Noida Toll Bridge Company Limited (NTBCL) has reduced the toll tax for cars plying on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi Flyway (DND) by Rs 6 on weekends only, officials said.

Protesters forced the DND operator to allow movement of vehicles without toll charges from 10:40am to 4:40pm on Sunday in Noida.(Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

“The reduced toll charges will be applicable only on Saturday and Sunday for to- -and-fro travel within 24 hours. There will be no discount on toll charges on one-way journey,” said Anwar A Abbasi, spokesperson of NTBCL. Earlier, commuters using cars had to pay Rs 56.

Commuters and farmers from areas long the 9.2-km stretch have long been demanding that the toll tax be scrapped entirely. However, commuters and those spearheading the movement against toll tax find this rebate ineffective.

“This is not acceptable to us. A decision to give interim relief to commuters was made at a meeting called by the UP chief secretary on July 15. Apart from this, the state government had agreed to give a 25% discount on toll tax if a vehicle returned within 24 hours. Now, after three months what the toll company is offering us is peanuts,” said Capt (retd) Vikas Gupta, national vice-president of Maulik Bharat, an organisation that has been protesting against charging toll on the DND flyway.

Noida authority chairman Rama Raman, NTBCL chief executive officer Harish Mathur, Bharat Kisan Union’s national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait and its Noida president Ajaypal Sharma had also attended the meeting on July 15 held in Lucknow.

RK Arora, a resident of Lajpat Nagar, who uses the flyway every day, said the reduction brings hardly any relief. “This is a rebate of nearly 10% and that too only on weekends. The concessionaire for the Badarpur flyover gives a discount of nearly 25% for with unlimited trips within 24 hours. The Noida toll company should have given a discount of 25% on all days of the week,” he said.