Toll Booth Removal: Delhi to Eliminate Physical Toll Booths at Borders with New Tech Implementation, ET Infra
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In a move that could reduce, if not end, the long queues at the Capital's borders, agencies including Delhi govt, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the road transport ministry on Friday unanimously agreed to remove physical booths on the highways to collect entry fee and green cess from commercial vehicles.At a meeting chaired by Union road transport secretary V Umashankar, it was decided to have Multi-Lane Free Flow (MMLF) toll and entry fee collection system with MCD stating that completely doing away with entry tax would cause revenue loss of around Rs 800 crore annually and severely dent its finances, sources said.Once MMLF is deployed, vehicles will not have to stop as overhead cameras across the lanes can read the vehicle registration number and deduct the charge from FASTag wallet linked to the vehicle.TOI has learnt that there was also unanimity among all agencies to find a solution to the collection of Environment Compensation Cess (ECC) or green cess collected from heavy commercial vehicles entering Delhi at borders, which causes long traffic snarls on NHs and expressways connecting Delhi. The meeting was attended by officials including Delhi chief secretary Dharmendra and MCD commissioner Ashwini Kumar.Officials said while the municipal corporation has approached the Supreme Court seeking a single unified value for ECC, which would pave the way for integration of FASTag and MCD's RFID tags to collect the green tax and entry fee, Haryana govt has pleaded for stopping ECC collection altogether. They added that now NHAI will also approach the apex court seeking a similar relief citing that now two peripheral expressways are operational for vehicles that are not destined for Delhi.Sources said road transport minister Nitin Gadkari will soon chair a meeting to take stock of the plan and progress of getting rid of these traffic choke points at Delhi borders. Long traffic jams have become the new normal on NHs and expressways due to physical booths which have been put up for collection of entry fee and ECC at five points - Sirhaul, Ghazipur, Badarpur, Tikri and Kundli. While taxis and trucks are mandated to have a pre-paid instrument, drivers often avoid recharging them and end up paying cash, adding to the chaos.The meeting also took stock of the progress of the plans to decongest Ashram-Badarpur section of NH-2 and plan for an elevated road from INA to Nelson Mandela Marg near Vasant Kunj and its extension to Gurgaon-Faridabad road. NHAI informed the meeting that the authority has invited bids for preparing detailed project reports for these two roads.
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