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In an effort to ease congestion on the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) Flyway, four temporary booths for toll collection will be made operational this month, officials of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said. Since October last year, a portion of the DND flyway, where a makeshift counter has been set up to collect toll, has witnessed parked trucks blocking the road, leading to traffic snarls.
“Four porta cabins will be set up hundred metres away from the old toll plaza to collect MCD toll and environment compensation cess (ECC). They will be set up on the Delhi side of the DND. The infrastructure is ready. Once we receive the go-ahead from NOIDA Authority officials, the new toll booths will become operational within a few hours. We are hoping to get the approval within a week,” said Uttam Pawar from MEP Infrastructure Private Limited, the concessionaire which has been given the contract by SDMC to collect the toll.
SDMC Mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat said the issue of traffic congestion on the DND will be addressed within a week’s time. “We have two options — to use the existing toll plaza or set up temporary booths on a stretch of the DND which is wide enough. At present, toll collection takes place on a stretch which is narrow. Three lanes have been dedicated for toll collection, leaving very little space for movement of private vehicles. This will be solved in the next seven days,” Sehrawat said.
Till October last year, MCD toll and ECC were collected at a toll plaza on the flyway — which also had dedicated lanes for collecting tax from heavy vehicles. With the Allahabad High Court ordering that the concessionaire, NTBCL, was no longer entitled to charge toll since it had “recovered all reasonable returns” from the bridge, toll collection was stopped overnight.
As per the former agreement, the SDMC concessionaire used to give 13.5 per cent of the toll collected to NTBCL. But following the court order, the collection booth had to be moved from the toll plaza. A senior Noida Authority official said, “There was some confusion. The HC order had said the SDMC can’t collect at the toll plaza since it does not fall in Delhi…”
The mayor said, “Recently, I had gone to DND and stayed there for half an hour to assess the situation. It is a severe problem. We then held meetings with Noida officials and other stakeholders, and raised concerns regarding the litigation surrounding the flyway and toll collection. We had offered to pay rent for using the existing toll plaza, but there is confusion over who has authority over the structure. The next meeting is scheduled to take place next week. If we don’t get to use the plaza, toll collection will take place 100 metres away through porta cabins.”
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