Expressway concessionaire seeks toll hike

Commuters at the Kherki Daula toll plaza might have to shell out increased toll fare from April 1 as the highway concessionaire on Tuesday wrote to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) calling for an annual revision of fees based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), released by union ministry for commerce and industry

Commuters at the Kherki Daula toll plaza might have to shell out increased toll fare from April 1 as the highway concessionaire on Tuesday wrote to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) calling for an annual revision of fees based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), released by union ministry for commerce and industry.

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Officials of the Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL), the concessionaire for the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, said that the final WPI numbers were released on Monday and as per the concession agreement, the fee has to be raised annually.

Suraj Bhardwaj, chief executive officer, MCEPL, said, “The toll fee is revised annually as per the concession agreement. We have written a letter to the NHAI but no decision has been taken yet. We are expecting that a decision in this matter will be taken soon.”

Vikas Mittal, senior manager, NHAI, when asked about the matter, said, “The toll will be revised and new rates will be implemented from April 1. The revision of the fees is based on WPI, concession agreement and NHAI rules and it is an annual exercise.”

Kherki Daula toll plaza, on average, collects toll from 80,000 vehicles every day. Last year, the NHAI had increased the toll fees of several categories of vehicles by ₹5, but the fee for passenger cars remained unchanged. At present, the toll for cars is ₹65 per trip, while mini trucks are charged ₹95, trucks and buses are charged ₹200 per trip.

The proposed revision of the toll at Kherki Daula toll plaza is going to hit the commuters hard as they were expecting the toll plaza to be shifted in the next few months as announced by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on February 14. Khattar had announced that the process for the transfer of land at Panchgaon to NHAI is underway and the plaza could be shifted in the next six months.

On March 5, the union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, after inspecting Dwarka Expressway, cited legal issues and extended the deadline for shifting of Kherki Daula toll plaza to August 15, 2022.

The MCEPL had taken over the concession of the toll in 2014 on the directions of the Delhi high court and the company can collect toll fees at the expressway till 2023.