By IANS,
Gurgaon : Motorists at the Kherki Daula toll plaza here were caught in a traffic jam Wednesday as they had to pay the usual fee after the operator claimed that the court had only restrained it from collecting the tax at one out of three plazas, police said.
Reacting to continuous traffic mess at the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway toll plaza, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Tuesday had barred expressway concessionaire Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd. (DGSCL) from collecting any charges from commuters for 15 days starting midnight Tuesday.
“We had stopped taking fee from all the three toll plazas at Delhi-Gurgaon expressway from Tuesday mid night but our lawyer told us Wednesday morning that court has restrained the company to collect the fee only at Sirhol (24 km from ISBT Delhi) toll barrier, so we restored our exercise,” DGSCL spokesperson told IANS.
On Delhi-Gurgaon expressway, DGSCL has installed three toll barriers. One at Haldiram Kherki Daula (16 lanes), 42 km from ISBT Delhi, second at Delhi-Gurgaon border Sirhol (32 lanes), 24 km from ISBT Delhi, and third at Loop towards Indira Gandhi International Airport with 6 Lanes.
At Kherki Daula, 18 lanes were to be constructed but only 16 are functioning even after five years of the opening of the expressway.
A division bench comprising Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar restrained DGSCL from collecting toll.
The bench expressed its displeasure at the concessionaire not being able to control traffic snarls at the busy toll plaza used by tens of thousands of vehicles every day. The concessionaire collects lakhs of rupees from the toll plazas daily.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ravinder Kumar Tomar said that there is some confusion regarding the court’s directions. Officials of DGSCL were right people to explain the court’s orders.
“We are waiting for the order’s copy, after that we will be in position to say something,” Tomar told IANS.
The court has directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to convene a meeting with the concessionaire and the Haryana government to find a permanent solution to the traffic snarls at the toll plazas.
The court pointed out that the differences between the three sides were leading to unnecessary harassment of commuters.
The high court directed the Haryana government to provide adequate security at the toll plaza for the next 15 days.