Kherki Daula toll plaza now fully FASTag compliant

Starting Sunday, 23 of the 25 lanes at the Kherki Daula toll plaza became fully compliant with the electronic toll collection (ETC) system, as was required by the

Starting Sunday, 23 of the 25 lanes at the Kherki Daula toll plaza became fully compliant with the electronic toll collection (ETC) system, as was required by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which had made toll payment through FASTags compulsory on national highways across the country on December 15. The expressway toll plaza concessionaire, however, said the number of commuters paying toll in cash was still quite high and this may slow down traffic as such commuters often enter ETC lanes for faster clearance. Among other concerns shared on the first day of implementation was traffic congestion, which is expected to increase when the number of office-goers returns to normal.

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Most corporate office in Gurugram have told their employees to work from home and schools have been shut, reducing the load on roads, as the city reported two cases of Covid-19, both of whom are now in quarantine.

“Full FASTag toll collection has been implemented at Kherki Daula toll plaza with 23 FASTag lanes and one cash lane on either side as per the directions of the Union ministry of transport and highways (MoRTH) order to have complete FASTag lanes,” NHAI Gurugram project director Ashok Sharma said.

Since its rollout, toll operators have been carrying out e-payment trials to encourage commuters to buy FASTags and check for system glitches. On February 15, MoRTH had given a “last” 30-day relaxation to 30 toll plazas across the country, including Kherki Daula, to fully rollout the FASTag system.

“We have been trying since February 15 for successful implementation of ETC but it has not worked out as trials were done during lean period to avoid congestion,” MCEPL systems manager Anish John said. “Trials mostly happened during night when the traffic volume is less,” MCEPL operations head Mohammad Sohrab Khan said.

“Traffic movement was smooth on Sunday as it was a weekend,” plaza controller at Kherki-Daula toll, Kuldeep Shukla, said, adding that during trials peak-hour traffic congestion would result in queues up to the Hyatt Hotel about a kilometer away.

It must be noted that the wait time at the toll plaza has come down to 10-15 minutes from an earlier average of 30 minutes earlier.

Officials said considering around 60,000 vehicles cross the Kherki-Daula toll plaza every day, the NHAI headquarters has given permission to toll officials to increase the number of cash lanes from one to two in case congestion causes a delay of more than 20 minutes even after March 15. Toll officials said they may have to fall back on this rule especially since the number of cash payers was quite high.

While Kherki Daula toll plaza project director Rajender Bhati said the number of cash transaction at Kherki Daula was substantial and that “the NHAI should not ignore such commuters”, NHAI officials said that as on March 12, the FASTag collection at the Kherki-Daula toll plaza was 81.56% and called the level of compliance “more than satisfactory”.