On Thursday, the traffic police came up with a unique solution to the continuous congestion on both sides of the Gurugram Faridabad toll plaza and said that if the queue of vehicles exceeds 50 meters at the toll plaza, vehicles should be parked in front of the queue. Free passage will be given until the queue is reduced.
For this purpose, the traffic police on Friday painted white stripes on both sides of the Gurugram-Faridabad toll plaza, 50 meters from the boom barriers.
Traffic police said that if the queue of vehicles goes beyond the white line, the boom barriers will be removed and vehicles will be allowed to pass freely, until the congestion is cleared and the queue is once again at the white line. come in
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Virender Vij said the initiative was taken after repeated complaints from commuters about congestion at the toll plaza.
“One site was checked for a week. We saw that it was crowded almost the whole day but the situation was really bad during peak hours. Passengers had to wait for more than an hour to cross the toll. Traffic After discussions with the team, we decided to paint a white line on both sides, 50 meters from the toll plaza, to provide relief.”
Police said the white lines will ensure that the queue of vehicles does not exceed 50 meters at any time and if the queue is beyond that distance, vehicles ahead can pass without paying toll.
These guidelines have been issued by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) as it seeks to minimize waiting time at toll plazas and ensure that even during peak hours per The vehicle should not exceed 10 seconds.
Manoj Khaitan, a resident of Sector 61, who works in a private company in Faridabad, said he stretches six days a week. “Not even once have I found the stretch congestion-free. It takes more than half an hour to cross the toll plaza because they don’t have the FASTag (an electronic toll collection system) option. The operators are very slow and punctual. fail to handle the pressure,” he said.
Lalit Sharma, a resident of Sector 48 and a daily commuter to Faridabad, said that the stretch after the Golf Course Extension Road towards Faridabad is congested at times and it takes more than an hour to cross it at least three times a week. Think.
“It’s been three years and the situation is still the same. We have complained to the police several times but there is no action. Operators are issuing manual slips and it takes time,” he said.
Collecting tolls individually, in the absence of a functioning FASTag facility, causes massive traffic congestion. More than 50,000 vehicles pass through the toll plaza every day, the traffic police said.
The state government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NHAI in 2019 to use the FASTag system to pay tolls on state roads as well, but the toll plaza on the Gurugram-Faridabad road was not allowed. Awaiting
Ashish Bhardwaj, director of the toll operating company South Asian Tollways Pvt Ltd, said that while they have installed all the equipment related to the FASTag system, there has been no progress as the proposal sent to the Haryana government is yet to be cleared. Is.
“To manage traffic, we have deployed additional manpower and given online payment QR codes to operators for payment. We have also installed hand-held machines at all counters for faster transactions. “The traffic volume has increased in the last few months and we are waiting for permission to start FASTag, which itself will decongest,” he said.
Bhardwaj said that they would have to bear heavy losses due to the new white belt initiative, but they would try to solve the congestion problem as soon as possible.
