Kherki-Daula toll collection to resume from Monday

Toll collection was temporarily suspended at all toll plazas across the country on March 25 with lockdown in place. Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI Gurugram, said, “Toll collection at Kherki-Daula toll plaza will start again from April 20. The toll will be collected from all lanes.”

After a gap of 25 days the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will resume operations of the Kherki-Daula toll plaza from April 20 when the central government’s curbs on movement will be partially relaxed. An NHAI official said all 25 lanes at the plaza will be operational and revised toll fee will be collected from commercial vehicles.

The single passage toll rate for cars hasn’t been changed. However, trucks and buses will have to pay ₹5 more from April 1 -- for mini trucks this will ₹95, and for trucks and buses, it will be ₹200. (HT file photo)

The single passage toll rate for cars hasn’t been changed. However, trucks and buses will have to pay ₹5 more from April 1 -- for mini trucks this will ₹95, and for trucks and buses, it will be ₹200.

Toll collection was temporarily suspended at all toll plazas across the country on March 25 with lockdown in place. Ashok Sharma, project director, NHAI Gurugram, said, “Toll collection at Kherki-Daula toll plaza will start again from April 20. The toll will be collected from all lanes.”

Officials of Millennium City Expressway Pvt Ltd (MCEPL), concessionaire of Kherki-Daula toll plaza said that around 90 toll booth operators are lodged in a guest house near Kherki-Daula and will start work from Monday. Anish John, systems manager, MCEPL, said, “All the staff have been out up in a guest house and will resume work from April 20. We will ensure that each toll booth operator wears masks, gloves and has sanitiser in their booth.”

Akhilesh Srivastava, chief general manager, NHAI, wrote to all regional offices and project directors on April 17 to resume collection of user fee at national highway. “As per the directions of ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) the collection of user fee was temporarily suspended at all national highways fee plazas (sic),” read the letter.

On April 17, MoRTH had asked NHAI to take necessary actions for compliance of the orders of ministry of home affairs on April 15 to resume toll operations. “In view of the above necessary instruction be issued to all user fee collection agencies to resume collection of user fee at all fee plazas on national highways from April 20 (sic),” read the letter.

NHAI has also maintained that they will be taking all precautionary measures while dealing with toll operations once the toll operations start from Monday. The NHAI letter states that all toll booth operators will maintain the required social distance while collecting toll. “By ensuring social distancing, sanitisation, frequent washing of hands, putting up masks hand gloves and other preventive measures in terms of the guidelines/instructions issued by the government of India to contain spread of COVID-19. FASTag/electronic toll collection system should be promoted to the maximum to avoid direct human involvement (sic),” read the letter, a copy of which is with HT.

Unlike the national highway toll operations which will resume operations from Monday across the country, toll plazas managed by the state government will remain closed till May 3 including the Gurgaon-Faridabad toll. All 15 toll collection points operated by Public Works Department (PWD) will remain shut for the second half of lockdown.