Chaos expected at Kherki Daula toll plaza on Monday

The real test for the operator of Kherki Daula toll plaza starts today as traffic is expected to increase multiple times on the first working day after the resumption of toll collection, following the demonetisation move.

The real test for the operator of Kherki Daula toll plaza starts today as traffic is expected to increase multiple times on the first working day after the resumption of toll collection, following the demonetisation move.

Traffic snarls were witnessed on the weekend as most commuters tried to pay the toll with scrapped ₹500 note and ₹2,000 note. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

Though the highway authority and the district administration said they set up adequate cashless payment facilities at the plaza, there were not many takers for the cashless service on the weekend.

As many as 100 personnel of Gurgaon police, including two assistant commissioners and five inspectors, will be deployed to manage the toll plaza. Besides, the administration has also appointed a duty magistrate for the purpose.

The dip in revenue collection notwithstanding, the highway operator said it would try best to prevent jams at the toll plaza.

“We know that it would mean a dip in our revenue, but we will lift the boom barriers and let commuters pass without paying the toll in the case of a snarl,” an official of Skylark, the operator, said.

Toll collection resumed on December 2 after the government imposed hiatus of 24 days to tackle the cash crunch post scrapping of old currency notes on November 8. The police lifted the boom barriers 20 times for vehicles to pass without paying the toll on Saturday and Sunday was no different.

Snarls were witnessed at the toll plaza on the weekend as commuters paid with the scrapped ₹500 notes, acceptable at toll plazas till November 15, and ₹2,000 notes.

Not more than 1% of the commuters used cards, e-wallets and other online payment modes facilitated by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for paying toll charges, officials said.

The NHAI has installed card swipe machines as well for making payment through debit/credit cards.

Around 86,000 vehicles pay toll at the Kherki Daula toll plaza on a working day. The concessionaire claimed that it has already incurred a loss of ₹11 crore between November 8 and December 2.

The chaos at Gurgaon-Faridabad toll plaza is also expected to increase, though the collection was not totally suspended.