JOIN USTraffic snarls at Delhi borders due to RFID system glitches
Delhi's border points witnessed traffic snarls during the peak morning hours Friday as commercial vehicles entering the national capital faced difficulty paying toll fees online at booths for a third consecutive day, taxi and commercial vehicle association said.
General public also faced traffic jams.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has implemented Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags at all 124 entry points to the city. The civic body had already announced that effective July no commercial vehicle was to be allowed in without RFID tags.
This order was implemented from Wednesday at all 124 toll plazas except for the 11 where farmers are protesting.
"Toll operators have been directed to collect toll fee through RFID only and not to accept cash. Traffic snarls are just initial hiccups which will be addressed as our teams are constantly working to ease the process," an SDMC official said.
Sanjay Samrat, president Delhi Taxi Tourist Transport Association, said that long queues are seen at border toll plazas which is leading to jams and also loss to commercial establishments. "Today too there were jams on border points. It is mainly because SDMC's RFID sensors many times fail to read the tag and hence create problems," he said.
"We have met the SDMC authorities and demanded that the RFID system should be made mandatory only from September 30 instead of July 1," Samrat said.
According to civic officials nearly 5 lakh RFID tags have been sold so far.
Commuters also complained of traffic congestion at borders. "It usually takes me 45 minutes to reach my office in Chanakya Puri from Noida but today it took me over one-hour-and-a-half to reach my destination. It is the public which faces hardships due to jam only the reason behind it changes," said Priyansh, who was stuck at DND on his way to office.