NHAI pushes for removal of Gurgaon toll plaza

April 18, 2013

NEW DELHI: Commuters moving between Delhi and Gurgaon may soon zip through the expressway without stopping at the 32-lane toll plaza. The National Highways Authority of India has asked the expressway project’s lead lender and its concessionaire to come up with a proposal to remove the toll plaza, which is the source of peak hour traffic jams every day.Around two lakh vehicles go through the toll plaza every day. At peak hours, cars constitute 72% of the traffic and the wait time can be as long as 10 minutes.A top NHAI official confirmed the move to remove the plaza. He told TOI that even the second plaza at KM 42 (Kherki Dhaula) could be shifted further down the road towards Jaipur so that it falls outside the city limits.

“This arrangement would mean large number of vehicles plying between Gurgaon and Delhi won’t be subjected to traffic snarls and won’t have to pay toll. On the other hand, the traffic towards Jaipur would pay full toll at a single point outside Gurgaon,” said the official.

Sources said the nitty-gritty of the arrangement are yet to be worked out. These would be proposed by the project’s lender and concessionaire. They added that at present around Rs 18 crore per month is collected as toll from both plazas on the expressway — roughly Rs 12 crore at the 32-lane toll plaza and Rs 6 crore at km 42 toll plaza. In case the first plaza is done away with, the overall toll collection would fall to Rs 10 crore, which would make the plan financially viable for concessionaire Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL) and the lead lender, Infrastructure Finance Development Company.

DGSCL had taken a loan of Rs 1,567 crore from a consortium of banks led by IDFC for this project. Officials familiar with the development said recovering this net present value (NPV) of the project from a single toll plaza would be impossible. If the plan to remove the 32-lane plaza goes ahead, both the lender and the concessionaire would have to take a financial hit.

In this case, the Haryana government could step in to compensate the project operator and lender. Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had shown interest last November in “purchasing” the project to make expressway travel hassle free. This would also suit his government in an election year, considering the huge public demand to remove the toll plaza and treat the expressway as an urban road connecting two cities.

These talks are on even as all the three parties – NHAI, IDFC and DGSCL – have filed cases against each other in the Delhi High Court. In the last hearing, IDFC had sought time from the court to put forward a settlement proposal. The court had allowed all parties to come out with a settlement and had fixed the next date for hearing to May 2.

Source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Gurgaon, ITS

3 Comments on “NHAI pushes for removal of Gurgaon toll plaza” Post your comment

Daljit Singh Khokhar on April 22nd, 2013 11:38 am

Please refer to my article witten in May 2011 in which I have suggested all that which NHAI is thinking after suffering huge loss. please go to my link http://www.easydriveforum,com/f230-gurgaon/holiday-for-toll-plazas-delhi-gurgaon-and kherki-dhaula-3815.html copies mailed to NHAI,CM Haryana,Chief Secretary Haryana,Chief Engineer NCR,Admin. HUDA, Commissioner MCG Gurgaon, TOI etc. in May 2011. I am sure the action will be taken by NHAI for the benefit of NCR commuters and avoid Jams in the IT city.
ITW Editor on April 22nd, 2013 12:25 pm

Dear Mr. Daljit Kokhar,

Thanks for visiting our website with your postings and feedback regularly with good intention of creating awareness among the public.We appreciate your relentless work in this endeavour . However we are unable to open or visit the link.

Would request you kindly mail or post the link so that we can visit the site and do the needful on our part.

warm regards,
Daljit Singh Khokhar on April 27th, 2013 8:26 pm

I am sorry that you could not open my links. I have already shared my articles with [email protected]. Please go to my blog in twitter@DaljitSingh28, or write Daljit Singh Khokhar in the URL and find all my blogs and comments. Thank you.