Delhi Gurgaon Expressway to stop collecting road toll

[Singh]

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The operators of a major highway in India have stopped collecting toll for a fortnight following a court order.

The court said the operators of the eight-lane highway connecting the capital, Delhi, with the suburb of Gurgaon had failed to ease traffic congestion at the toll gates.

Nearly 200,000 vehicles take the highway daily. Sometimes they take up to 20 minutes to clear the toll gates.

The 27km (16-mile)-long expressway opened in 2008.

Vehicles were seen speeding through the unmanned toll gates on Wednesday morning.

In its order on Tuesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said the operator had failed to comply with its earlier order of finding a solution to end traffic congestion.

The court had asked Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DSCL) to take steps to decongest the toll gates by putting additional collection windows and deploy more people to manage the traffic.

The operators say they have been doing their best to manage the growing traffic and are unable to put up more gates to collect toll because of unavailability of land.

The next court hearing in the case is due on 20 September.

BBC News - India Gurgaon highway stops collecting road toll

 

[Oracle]

This is not the expressway connecting Delhi and Noida right? I don't remember any expressway from Delhi to Gurgaon.

 

[rock127]

This toll is always in controversy mostly for congestion... one pays and then wait also for 10-20 mins as well. Also they ask Rs 21 which sometime not easy to give and takes time.Why don't they put a simple slab of 10's like 10,20,30 etc.They have had enough cost collected for the construction.Daily collection goes in crores.Even after there are huge jams they still not open the gates to ease.The recent temporary toll points not helping much.

In India lot of Plans are implemented on papers but practically it simply FAILS.

 

[Oracle]

This toll is always in controversy mostly for congestion... one pays and then wait also for 10-20 mins as well. Also they ask Rs 21 which sometime not easy to give and takes time.Why don't they put a simple slab of 10's like 10,20,30 etc.They have had enough cost collected for the construction.Daily collection goes in crores.Even after there are huge jams they still not open the gates to ease.The recent temporary toll points not helping much.

In India lot of Plans are implemented on papers but practically it simply FAILS.

The policy makers do not have vision. The policies adopted are on an urgent and near term basis, they fail to take into account future congestion due to increasing # of vehicles, increasing population etc. There are many white papers for sustainable development, but ghadas just don't want to learn.

 

[Singh]

This is not the expressway connecting Delhi and Noida right? I don't remember any expressway from Delhi to Gurgaon.

==

This toll is always in controversy mostly for congestion... one pays and then wait also for 10-20 mins as well. Also they ask Rs 21 which sometime not easy to give and takes time.Why don't they put a simple slab of 10's like 10,20,30 etc.They have had enough cost collected for the construction.Daily collection goes in crores.Even after there are huge jams they still not open the gates to ease.The recent temporary toll points not helping much.

In India lot of Plans are implemented on papers but practically it simply FAILS.

This is a scam, saar.
They spent around 1000 crores on this highway but are collecting 160 crores per annum.

They should be paid a lump sum and asked to forego toll collections.

 

[Singh]

[

Centre may buy back Delhi-Gurgaon expressway​

NEW DELHI: The Centre is considering the option of buying back the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project in case there are no solutions to commuters' woes at toll plazas on this stretch. Once that happens, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) could make this stretch toll free and find a permanent solution to congestions at toll plazas.

Highways minister CP Joshi mentioned this while chairing a meeting of senior officials of Centre and Haryana government and a few private developers on Monday evening.


Those who attended the meeting told TOI that the minister said his office has been receiving complaints of expressway mess from commuters and even politicians. "Many from his home state, Rajasthan, who come to meet him also complain about the long jam at two toll plazas on the expressway," said a source.

On Tuesday, Joshi said that they would have no option than to buy back the project if the situation does not improve. Already NHAI has issued contract termination notice to the private concessionaire and the developer has challenged it in the Delhi high court.

"All our future moves will depend on the court order. If the situation doesn't improve even after the court order we may go for buying back the project. All our moves including serving the termination notice are to find solutions to the mess," Joshi said. He said there is opposition by locals who have to pay toll even when they use only a small portion of the expressway.

Sources said a top ministry official also told the minister that there is no provision of buying back the project in the contract agreement. "The official pointed out that NHAI has to terminate the project first before buying it back. The authority can find tens of flaws in any project to terminate. Then it can work out the compensation that NHAI has to pay to the developer," said a senior NHAI official.

Any option to buy back the project without terminating the contract could actually do more damage to NHAI, sources said. As per norms, the developer could raise a claim based on the calculation of the amount it could have earned from the toll collection during the remaining years of the contract period.

At present, the developer collects around Rs 160 crore annually from toll and there is about 12-15% increase every year.


Centre may buy back Delhi-Gurgaon expressway - Times Of India

 

[Oracle]

@ Singh - What I meant was, I have traveled to Delhi via the expressway from Noida. So, is there like a turn, say somewhere in the middle of the expressway which links Gurgaon? No, I guess.

Btw, I don't remember much of Gurgaon, because I don't want to. The 1 month I stayed there and the many visits for official purposes were nightmares.

 

[The Messiah]

Collecting toll is daylight robbery in any case. Why do we pay road tax in the first place ?

 

[sob]

Anyway today was the first toll free day and the people experienced zero delays at the toll booth for the first time in years. For such a high density traffic expressway the Toll system was bound to fail. Does any other highway in India have 32 Toll booths and still experience 5-30 minutes delay. The operators at the toll boot never get to sit down and they are super efficient. The design and the planning by NHAI is to blame.

The traffic that was calculated for 2013 , the expressway started getting that volume in 2009 itself. This just goes on to show how the planning was way off the grid.

 

[Virendra]

Now the commuters are complaining of traffic jam in Gurgaon.
Basically the jam just shifted from toll gate to inside Gurgaon

 

[thakur_ritesh]

Why can't they make multi layer flayer over/s at the point where the toll collection has to happen. With extra investment, the toll booths can easily be doubled, tripled. No one gets through without paying a toll, eases the traffic, and everyone goes easily home.