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Toll plazas in Ghaziabad and Hapur suffer 35-50% revenue loss during ‘toll-free’ call by farmers, says NHAI
Ghaziabad: The “toll-free plazas” call given by the protesting farmers impacted the fee collection at three major toll plazas in and around Ghaziabad on Saturday.
Ghaziabad: The “toll-free plazas” call given by the protesting farmers impacted the fee collection at three major toll plazas in and around Ghaziabad on Saturday. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials said that the protesters arrived at the toll plazas around 11.30am and allowed vehicles to pass without paying tolls.
The Ghaziabad district has two major toll plazas at Dasna and Duhai interchange of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), while another major toll is at Chijarsi in Hapur which is part of phase 3 of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway project.
The call for making toll plazas free was given by the farmers who are protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws. After the recent talks with the government reached a deadlock, the farmers’ leaders gave a call for “toll-free” plazas on December 12.
“As per our estimates, we suffered a revenue loss of about 35% at Chijarsi toll plaza, while the loss is estimated to be about 50% at the two toll plazas at Duhai and Dasna interchange. The protesters arrived in groups around noon on Saturday and held protests till late afternoon. The traffic at the three toll plazas was normalised by 5pm today,” said Mudit Garg, project director of NHAI.
He said that EPE tolls have movement of about 60,000 passenger car units per day, while the Chijarsi toll has movement of about 40,000-50,000 cars a day.
“Almost all the lanes have Fastag facility and about 80-85% vehicles use Fastags. However, the toll through Fastag is deducted only when the vehicles move at slow speed at toll plazas. After the farmers made lanes toll-free, vehicles moved at high speed. So, most of the vehicles went without any deduction,” Garg said.
Although the administration had made deployment of police at toll plazas in Ghaziabad as well as Hapur districts, protesters came in groups of hundreds and stayed at the tolls, police officials said.
“As part of their protest, they made toll plazas free for vehicles. However, we did not allow them to take up any protest or disrupt any traffic on highway. The protesters came in groups and every group staged their protests. There was no untoward incident reported during the day,” said Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, superintendent of police, Hapur.
Meanwhile, hundreds of farmers on Saturday continued the blockade of National Highway-9 at the UP Gate and said that their “toll-free” call was successful.
“Various tolls in western UP were made toll-free, but none of our supporters indulged in any violence or disrupted any traffic movement. The call was to make the government aware about the strength of farmers and also to involve more farmers in the ongoing agitation. No violence or any untoward incident was reported during the protests. Our leaders have already told supporters that protest must go on peacefully,” said Rajbir Singh, state vice-president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU).
The BKU supporters led by Rakesh Tikait has been staging protests at the UP Gate since November 28 and were joined by other farmers from Uttarakhand, Punjab and western UP. The protesting farmers on December 3 blocked the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of NH-9 and are still continuing since.
