Snarls hit Kherki Daula toll plaza as tax exemption ends

Demonetisation blues hit the Kherki Daula toll plaza on Saturday after the toll exemption ended at midnight with a majority of commuters presenting Rs 2000 notes

Demonetisation blues hit the Kherki Daula toll plaza on Saturday after the toll exemption ended at midnight with a majority of commuters presenting Rs 2000 notes that delayed the procedure and sparked traffic snarls.

Long traffic queues were witnessed at Kherki Daula toll plaza as the toll fee exemption ended at midnight on Saturday. (Parveen Kumar/ HT Photo)

While there was no chaos on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway in the morning because the number of vehicles was still less as most corporate offices were closed for the weekend, the situation worsened after midday. The queues extended to about half a kilometer on either side of the plaza.

Earlier in the morning, the toll operator lifted the booms and suspended toll collection intermittently to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.

“Majority of truck and bus drivers presented the Rs 2000 note despite having small notes. This caused lot of delay as we had to ask people to present cards and smaller notes,” said Devender Chahar, assistant general manager, Skylark, the toll plaza operator.

A Haryana roadways bus at the toll plaza in Gurgaon.

The highway control room reported smooth movement after 8 am as most of the heavy and commercial vehicles had passed through the toll by then. A large team of Gurgaon police has also been deployed at the toll plaza to ensure smooth movement of vehicles.

Toll tax was initially suspended till November 11 following the government’s demonetisation announcement last month and then extended to December 2.

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