M A I N   N E W S

Stay on Delhi-Gurgaon e-way toll collection to continue
Rajinder Nagarkoti/TNS

Chandigarh, September 14
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today refused to to vacate the stay on collection of toll on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The High Court pulled up the Municipal Corporation Delhi (MCD) for not paying attention to the problems faced by commuters using the expressway. It also told the concessionaire — Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL) — to find out a practical solution to the traffic snarls on the expressway.

The MCD’s counsel moved the High Court to vacate the stay. The counsel told the division bench bench of acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar that in the absence of toll collection, the MCD was suffering a loss of Rs 20 lakh a day. The court rejected the request to vacate the stay and deferred the hearing to September 17.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had also refused to entertain MCD’s petition challenging Punjab and Haryana High Court’s September 4 order suspending the collection of toll on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway for 15 days.

On September 4, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the collection of toll tax on the expressway for 15 days.

The HC had passed the direction on a plea by the Gurgaon police that the agency collecting the tax was responsible for traffic snarls on the expressway. The concessionaire — Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DGSCL) — did not have adequate staff to collect the tax promptly and do away with the long wait for commuters at the toll plaza.

Gurgaon traffic police had moved the high court with the plea that concessionaires were not having requisite staff to deal with traffic, resulting in snarls.