What’s behind traffic snarls at 5 key border points in Delhi?

The issue was raised at a recent meeting between the Centre and the Delhi government on a plan to decongest the city, which includes ongoing big infrastructure projects being executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to improve connectivity between Delhi and neighbouring cities.

There are over 150 MCD toll booths, of which 13 are RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) enabled. Over 1 lakh commercial vehicles enter Delhi daily, of which more than 50% are cabs. The civic body earns around Rs 800 crore a year from toll charges.

At the meeting, officials said, the NHAI highlighted that significant traffic congestion at Delhi’s borders is attributed to the MCD toll plaza operations.

“Traffic jams are witnessed due to the heavy flow of commercial vehicles at the specified locations. It has also been observed that traffic speed decreases at these [five] locations, raising the risk of collisions with high-speed vehicles approaching from behind…,” said officials.

Officials also highlighted that the MCD has deployed a fee-collecting agency at these locations, causing hindrance to the free flow of traffic during peak hours.

The MCD, in its response to the issues highlighted by the NHAI, said, “Traffic snarls are taking place due to narrowing/funnelling of road just before the boundary of Airport and merging of UER-II traffic…”

Officials said a possible solution to address this issue is implementing the gantry-based Multi-Lane-Free-Flow (MLFF) tolling system with FASTag integration.

The MLFF system has no physical plaza. The tolling system will be mounted on gantries, which will capture vehicle information as they pass through.

“The MLFF system enables seamless, real-time toll collection using passive RFID and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technologies. As vehicles approach the gantry, their FASTag and license plates are automatically scanned. This allows the system to electronically deduct the appropriate toll amount from the driver’s prepaid account without the need to stop or slow down,” said a senior official.

Officials said that as the NHAI is the expert in the field of tolling, the MCD is planning to seek support from it. Officials from the corporation will visit and study NHAI’s successful toll sites. “Apart from this, the MCD is also planning to protect its revenue by interlinking FASTag with bank accounts, permits, insurance, etc,” said officials.

In the meantime, the NHAI has asked the civic body to expedite the process of setting up the MLFF tolling systems at the five border areas. “The Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL) may be contacted for providing necessary support to MCD for fastag/tolling integration,” read the document.

The meeting also discussed other issues, including a request from the NHAI to the MCD to deposit toll tax collections that were due after March 22, 2020.

According to the document, an MoU was signed on July 12, 2019, between NHAI and the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation for collecting toll at the Badarpur Elevated Fee Plaza on NH-2. The agreement was valid from June 12, 2019, to July 12, 2020. However, SDMC has not deposited the agreed amount since March 22, 2020. NHAI has requested a payment of Rs 21.3 crore, which has now increased to Rs 23.3 crore due to interest.

In response, the MCD said it is trying to recover the amount from the contractor who was handling toll collection at the time. Officials added that several cases have been filed in different courts, and the matter is currently sub-judice.