Kherki Daula toll shift: Operator will suffer 44% income loss, says study

About 1.1 lakh vehicles pass through Kherki toll every day. This will reduce to about 60,000 once toll is shifted

A traffic survey, undertaken by the Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL), claims that the concessionaire will suffer a 44% revenue loss if the toll is shifted from Kherki Daula in Gurgaon to Sehrawan in Panchgaon and Manesar.

The 23-lane Kherki Daula toll plaza has become a major bottleneck on the 27.7km Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, leading to demands from industrialists to shift it. (Parveen Kumar/ht photo)

The 23-lane Kherki Daula toll plaza has become a major bottleneck on the 27.7-km expressway. The report has been submitted to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The other findings of the report have not yet been disclosed.

The NHAI has asked MCEPL, the concessionaire of the expressway, to shift one of the tolls to Sehrawan, about 11km from the existing toll plaza, and the other to Manesar, about 5km from Kherki Daula.

According to the MCEPL study, about 1.1 lakh vehicles cross the toll plaza per day leading to average revenue of ₹40 lakh per day. This will decrease to about 60,000 vehicles once the toll is shifted to two different places.

S Raguraman, chief executive officer (CEO), MCEPL, said, “We have been asked to set up a toll in Manesar for traffic from the Jaipur to Delhi side and another in Sehrawan near Panchgaon for traffic going from Delhi to Jaipur. Establishing two toll plazas will require a huge investment and we have presented the facts before the NHAI. Apart from that, we will lose 44% revenue at the new locations and this is a huge loss to the consortium of five banks which is running the expressway.”

NHAI project director, Gurgaon, Ashok Sharma refused comment on the issue.

“The matter is under consideration at our headquarters so it will be improper on my part to comment,” Sharma said.

On August 14, Union minister of road transport and highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari had asked to set up a committee to study feasibility and shift the toll before September 15. Compliance with the announcement was delayed though the NHAI formed a panel in August.

Following Gadkari’s order, NHAI had asked MCEPL to shift the toll from Kherki Daula.

The Expressway came into operation with two toll plazas — at Sirhaul and Kherki Daula— in 2008. It ran into trouble within three years of its opening. In February 2013, the NHAI issued a contract termination notice to then concessionaire DGSCL after alleged financial irregularities and the Sirhaul toll was razed in February 2014.

Later, the NHAI signed an agreement with IDFC-led consortium which is operating the expressway through MCEPL.