Gurugram, Feb 16 (IANS): Commuters on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway (NH-48) may face frequent traffic jams at the Kherki Daula toll plaza for the next few days, as the government has made digital toll payment across the country via FASTags mandatory from Monday midnight.
The move to implement digital modes of payments is expected to affect traffic movement on the national highway.
Officials of the Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL), the concessionaire, said that jams may be caused as 20 percent of the vehicles do not have FASTags.
An MCEPL official said that to tackle the vehicles passing through the toll plaza they have deployed extra traffic marshals on all 25 lanes. Traffic police have been informed so that no confusion can occur during the morning hours on Tuesday.
"We have fully prepared for digital payment at the toll plaza. The problem will come to fore when the blacklisted vehicles that don't have functional tags or commuters without FASTags would enter in the lanes and disrupt the traffic movement," said an MCEPL official.
Another problem is that around 65,000 toll-paying vehicles pass through the toll plaza at Kherki Daula every day which has increased significantly after the launching of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The number of toll-paying vehicles, which stood at around 65,000 on an average for the last few days, has increased to 80,000, said an official of the concessionaire.
All steps have been taken to ensure the smooth movement of traffic at the toll plaza. "New Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag readers have been installed recently, multiple stalls for the sale of FASTags have been set up at the toll plaza to ensure vehicle owners can buy these," said a official, adding that people will take some time to opt digital payments at the toll plaza.
National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials also said that vehicles entering the lanes without valid tags would have to pay double the fees.
The FASTags are operated through RFID technology to collect toll fees. The stickers are fixed on windshields and these are detected at the toll plaza by the readers.
"FASTags system is good if commuters fully follow it. As it will help to curb traffic pollution at the toll plaza. Secondly, vehicles didn't pile up on the expressway. We have also fully prepared to deal with traffic jams if occurred on the spot. We have 20 traffic personnel to keep the traffic movement don't disturbing the national highway," said sub-inspector Nasib Singh, posted at the police traffic booth at the toll plaza.