It’s easy ride for toll plaza operators, not motorists

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 11

The state government in an apparent move to favour toll operators is not strictly implementing the norms guiding their operations. There are 18 toll plazas on 10 state-owned roads.

There is a binding on the toll operators that queues in all lanes should be cleared within a minute and the number of vehicles in a queue cannot exceed six.

Unlike toll plazas of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) where the operator has to refund the money to the user if the waiting period goes beyond two minute, the state PWD has failed to include any such clause at the time entering into an agreement with the operator.

“This is a clear sign of poor regulatory mechanism of the state government. The operator should be made answerable for making to wait motorists for more than the stipulated time,” said Punjab Traffic Adviser Navdeep K Asija, who has raised the issue before the Punjab Infrastructure Regulatory Authority.

Few months ago when the issue of toll plaza operators making money by “selling” toffees instead of handing back change was highlighted, traffic jams on busy toll roads such as Balachaur-Dasua, Patiala-Patran, Hoshiarpur-Tanda, Ludhiana-Malerkotla-Sangrur, Kiratpur-Una, Patiala-Nabha-Malerkota was highlighted by the Traffic Adviser.

High volume of traffic means that the number of vehicles is increasing and could go beyond the projected volume. Accordingly, more toll booths are to be provided by the operator. Defending the operators, a senior official said not all toll plazas were making profit. “Steps such as issuing receipts through hand-held devices to speed up traffic flow on toll roads are being implemented,” he said.

Besides, the toll fee for a two-way trip at any given time is valid up to midnight unlike the toll plazas of the NHAI where the toll fee is valid for 24 hours.