Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has approved the plan. Also, to ensure there is no congestion at the new location, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will adopt the Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) toll collection system.
Toll Plaza Removed: The government has approved the shifting of the Kherki Daula toll plaza from the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway (NH-48) to Pachgaon beyond Manesar. This will ease the commute for lakhs of working people. When the toll plaza will move to Pachgaon, more than 15 km from Gurugram, commuters traveling between Delhi and Manesar will also not have to pay toll. Locals have been demanding its removal since 2014.
According to information received from the Times of India, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has approved the plan. Also, to ensure that there is no congestion at the new location, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will adopt the Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) toll collection system. Sources said that the Haryana government has given about 28 acres of land to the highway authority for the new facility.
It may take about six months to shift the Kherki Daula toll plaza to Pachgaon and start toll collection through the MMLF system. A source said Pachgaon is the perfect location as it falls ahead of Gurugram and Manesar. Since an interchange of the Western Peripheral Expressway and NH-48 is at Pachgaon, the new toll collection point could not be beyond this intersection.
In the MMLF system, vehicles will not need to stop as cameras installed above each lane will read the vehicle’s registration number and the toll will be automatically deducted from the FASTag wallet. Sources said it has also been decided to create a system so that traffic coming from Dwarka Expressway and going to Jaipur will not have to pay toll again at this place. A source said, “This is quite possible. Once the annual toll pass for private vehicles is introduced, most of the problems will automatically end.”
With the removal of the toll plaza, the disputes between the people of the areas around Kherki Daula and the toll operators will end. Also, it will fulfill the promise made by the Haryana and Central governments for the last seven-eight years. Locals were demanding the NHAI to remove the toll plaza. They said that the government has recovered more than the investment made by private companies and highway authorities in building the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha in March, the Road Transport Ministry had said that the cost of the Delhi-Gurugram stretch of NH-48 was Rs 2,489 crore, while the toll collection was around Rs 2,775 crore, which is about 11% more than the investment.
After the completion of this 27-km long Delhi-Gurugram Expressway, commuters were paying toll at Sirhaul (Delhi-Gurugram border) and Kherki Daula toll plazas. Toll collection at the Delhi-Gurugram border was discontinued in 2014, bringing relief to those travelling between Delhi’s Dhaula Kuan and Kherki Daula. However, those who travelled beyond this point had to pay toll for the entire distance. Currently, the NHAI collects toll through its agency.
Meanwhile, sources said the decision by the road transport ministry to shift the Kherki Daula toll plaza will put further pressure on the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to remove physical entry fee collection booths at the capital’s borders to prevent congestion. The traffic jams at these places defeat the very purpose of the huge investments made in building highways and expressways for faster connectivity to Delhi.
