Government approves shifting of Gurgaon’s Kherki Daula toll plaza on Delhi-Jaipur NH to Pachgaon | India News

NEW DELHI: The government has approved shifting of Gurgaon’s Kherki Daula toll plaza on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway (NH-48) to Pachgaon, a place beyond Manesar, paving the way for easy commute for lakhs of office goers.When the plaza is moved to Pachgaon, over 15 kilometres from Gurgaon, commuters travelling between Delhi and Manesar also won’t have to pay toll. Locals have been demanding its removal since 2014.TOI has learnt that Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari has approved the plan, and to ensure the new spot doesn’t see any congestion, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will go for Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) toll collection system. For the new facility, the Haryana government has provided nearly 28 acres of land to the highway authority, sources said.The process of shifting and starting the MMLF system to collect toll at Pachgaon may take around six months. “Pachgaon is the ideal location as it falls beyond Gurgaon and Manesar. Since there is an interchange of the Western Peripheral Expressway and the NH-48 at Pachgaon, the new toll collection point couldn’t have been beyond the intersection,” a source said.In the MMLF system, vehicles don’t need to stop as overhead cameras installed for each lane will read the vehicle registration number and automatically deduct the charge from the FASTag wallet linked to the vehicle.Sources said a decision has also been taken to have an integrated system to ensure that traffic coming from the Dwarka Expressway side and heading towards Jaipur don’t end up paying toll at this point once again as user fee. “This is very much possible. Once the annual toll pass for private vehicles is rolled out most of the issues will be resolved automatically,” said a source.The shifting of the toll plaza will end conflicts between operators and people from areas adjoining Kherki Daula, and fulfil the promise the Haryana and central governments have been making for the past seven to eight years.Locals have been demanding that the NHAI shift the toll plaza citing that the govt has recovered more than the investment made in constructing the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway by private players and the highway authority.In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha in March, the road transport ministry said against Rs 2,489 crore incurred as cost for the NH-48’s Delhi-Gurgaon stretch, the toll collection has been around Rs 2,775 crore, around 11% more than the investment.After completion of this 27-km Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, commuters were paying user fees at Sirhaul (Delhi-Gurgaon border) and Kherki Daula toll plazas. Tolling was stopped at the Delhi-Gurgaon border in 2014, bringing relief to commuters travelling between Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and Kherki Daula. However, those going beyond this point paid toll for the entire stretch. At present, NHAI collects toll through its agency.Meanwhile, sources said the decision to shift the Kherki Daula toll plaza by the road transport ministry will create more pressure on the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to do away with physical entry fee collection booths on the capital’s borders to prevent congestion. Traffic jams at these places defeat the purpose of huge investment in building highways and expressways for faster connectivity to Delhi.