Vehicles awaiting pickup at Ambience Mall add to chaos at Delhi-Gurgaon border
The Dhanchiri camp area on the Delhi-Gurgaon border is already a choke point, with drivers of commercial vehicles having to park vehicles on the side of the highway so they can visit the camp and pay the toll tax.
With parking in Ambience mall being limited and expensive, drivers of several non-commercial vehicles have started parking their cars near the toll tax collection camp in Danchiri, near the now defunct Sirhaul toll plaza.
The Dhanchiri camp area on the Delhi-Gurgaon border is already a choke point, with drivers of commercial vehicles having to park vehicles on the side of the highway so they can visit the camp and pay the toll tax.
There is one counter for transport tax collection and it takes 15 to 20 minutes for each driver to get back to his/her vehicle. It is worth noting that the Haryana tourism is the custodian authority of the Dhanchiri camp where a single window for the tax collection was opened recently.
As per the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) estimates, more than three lakh vehicles, on an average, pass the Sirhaul border a day.
The addition of private vehicles to the commercial ones is leading to snarls, especially during the peak hours.
Hassled motorists struggle to navigate their way through the midst of parked vehicles that are practically taking up an entire lane of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway.
“Earlier this year, commercial vehicles were parked on the side of the road as drivers queued at toll booths to pay the tax. The lack of adequate motorable road space threw traffic out of gear. Once authorities took notice of the issue, they shifted the toll tax further away from the highway and resolved the crisis. However, now non-commercial vehicles are being parked on the roadside and the snarls are back,” Kailash Dhar, a resident of DLF Phase-3, said.
Drivers at the spot said NHAI officials or traffic police personnel are rarely spotted in the area and, hence, motorists park their vehicles on the roadside without much fear.
“I find parking at this spot far more convenient than inside the mall. It takes less time to get to the main entrance from here than the basement parking. Since this spot is free, if a tow-away vehicle comes around, I simply drive my vehicle off and return to the area after some time,” Raju, a driver, said.
Traffic police officials said that they have deputed PCR vans round the clock on both sides of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and they will be alerted of the issue.
