The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has asked the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway operator DS Construction to reduce charges for pre-paid monthly users by about a third and also drop the one-time charge of Rs 1,500 for smart tags for vehicles.
DS Construction is the road developer and operator of national highway between Delhi and Gurgaon, a satellite town of Delhi. This stretch is at the receiving end of users’ ire who end up waiting a long time at the toll plazas at peak hours.
With this move, NHAI expects to encourage more commuters to adopt tags for paying tolls and potentially reduce the time spent at toll plazas.
“Office goers between Delhi and Gurgaon use the toll plaza for 20 days in a month and not 30,” NHAI officials told
DS Construction charges Rs 1,500 for the tag to be attached to vehicles for commuters who want to do away with paying tolls in cash every day. If agreed upon, this proposal is expected to reduce cost of using the toll road for daily commuters, but the extent to which the waiting time will go down on one of the busiest toll roads in India remains to be seen. DS Construction has also been asked to make some design interventions to reduce waiting time for commuters. The company had not given its consent to the NHAI proposals till Wednesday evening. In the settlement being attempted, NHAI is trying to limit the variations from the basic concession agreement signed between DS Constriction and the NHAI. Over 2 lakh people use the road daily.
The Delhi-Gurgaon expressway project was awarded in 2002 by the NHAI to the concessionaire Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Ltd (DGSCL), with DGSCL paying Rs 61 crore to the NHAI. DGSCL has the right to operate this stretch for 20 years, till 2023.