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Only two cash lanes at Chhajarsi toll plaza from Jan 15; FASTag must
With electronic payment of toll through FASTag having become compulsory from today, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), from midnight January 14, made
With electronic payment of toll through FASTag having become compulsory from today, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), from midnight January 14, made two more lanes at the 18-lane Chhajarsi toll plaza FASTAag-only. Now, a total of 16 lanes accept FASTag payment, and just two, one on each side, will accept cash payment.
While these prepaid rechargeable tags were supposed to roll out by December 2019, the deadline was extended by a month because of a shortage of supply on the market. During the initiation of FASTag facility on December 15, the NHAI had reserved 10 lanes for vehicles paying through FASTag, while the rest were hybrid lanes.
Officials had said that every week they would convert two hybrid lanes to FASTag.
“We will be converting two more lanes to FASTag lanes from midnight of January 14. This will take the tally of FASTag lanes to 16,” NHAI deputy general manager Mudit Garg said.
The Chhajarsi toll plaza is presently the only operational toll on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway. Besides the 18 lanes, there is one lane on each side for autorickshaws and motorbikes, which are exempt from toll charges.
According to Garg, the toll plaza has a flow of about 40,000 passenger car units of which about 25,000 pay toll at Chhajarsi . “In a way, we have been able to bring about 65% commuters under the FASTag system,” he said.
The Chhajarsi toll plaza is located near Pilkhuwa in Hapur district and operational as part of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway’s phase 3, which is open for operations between Dasna in Ghaziabad to Hapur over a distance of about 22km.
The other toll plazas under the Delhi-Meerut Expressway’s phase 2 (UP-Gate to Dasna) and 4 (Dasna to Meerut) will be made operational only by May this year, when the project is expected to get completed.
The Chhajarsi toll primarily caters to commuters travelling to western UP, Rampur, Moradabad, Lucknow and Uttarakhand.
“For bringing more vehicles under the FASTag system, we have held number of camps in Ghaziabad and Hapur and distributed about 35,000 FASTags. We are in touch with NGOs and associations and more such camps will be held in near future. The idea is to bring all vehicles under FASTag and not penalise commuters,” he said.
