Former HC judge inspects toll plaza

Two days before the extended deadline to find solutions to remove congestion at expressway, the Sirhaul toll plaza was inspected by former chief
justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Mukul Mudgal along with an
independent consultant on Sunday. 

Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) administrator Parveen Kumar and some traffic police officials were also present.

Justice (retired) Mudgal reviewed the traffic measures which the concessionaire was expected to take by Sunday. It was asked on Thursday by the division bench of acting chief justice Jasbir Singh and justice Rakesh Kumar to set up 21 split lanes.

“We have apprised the High Court representative (retired justice Mudgal) of the various initiatives that are being considered for decongestion of the toll plaza,” said spokesperson of DGSCL.

“These include 2X7 split tolling configuration on the Gurgaon to Delhi side, 2X6 split tolling configuration on the Delhi to Gurgaon side and the temporary 8 lane tolling configuration on the Udyog Vihar road. Now we await the court’s feedback in the next hearing which has been slated for Tuesday,”  the spokesperson added.

Administrator optimistic

Parveen Kumar told Deccan Herald, “He heard all of us and is likely to submit the report by Tuesday in the court. All of us are working towards a cordial solution to remove the congestion at the toll. And I think we can expect some concrete
solution unfolding before us in a few days.”

The Sirhaul toll at NH-8 gets average weekday traffic of close to 2 lakh vehicles which led to uncontrollable traffic snarls.

This ensued an unprecedented punitive action by the High Court which, on September 5, had prohibited the concessionaire from collecting toll tax for 15 days.

Until Tuesday, collection of toll tax from private vehicles has been prohibited.

However, the collection from commercial vehicles was resumed on Thursday. The receipts from these vehicles go to the south municipal corporation of Delhi and not to Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL).

Apart from introducing split toll plaza, other steps which the toll operator plans to introduce include enforcing the lane discipline under which cash users will be penalised on entering tag lanes.

This is expected to ensure faster movement of traffic.

The third solution is to introduce touch and go cards which can be used by motorists using cash lanes at present.