Truck owners using fake passes and number plates to avoid paying tolls, vehicles installing beacons at the last moment, lack of support from police and district administration to collect toll charges are just some of the woes that road developers and toll operators listed out to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) at a recent interaction here.
“Even when truck owners over-load their vehicles, we face difficulties in getting them to pay two-three times the toll charge. If we were to start collecting 10 times the toll charge, there is bound to be huge resistance,” said a developer.
Some of the operators favoured the idea of a portable or mobile toll plaza. Interestingly, some others developers wanted a police presence near the plazas, while several others said a “mobile police van” was a better idea than a police chowki/booth near the plaza.
NHAI officials said the Punjab and Haryana governments had agreed to put up a police chowki/booth near certain toll plazas, but the toll plaza operators did not want them near the plaza, saying that the presence of police created a “nuisance”.
In a lighter vein some toll operators said the presence of Regional Transport Office officials also leads to “revenue loss” in toll collection. “Truckers avoid toll plazas where there are RTO officials,” said a developer. Some also complained about State governments issuing notices to add to the list of people exempted from paying toll.
“There is a need to change the mindset to maintain toll paying discipline. All chief secretaries should maintain toll paying discipline,” said NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra, during the interaction.
He said NHAI will be implementing an advanced traffic management system across 2,000 km of National Highways, adding that while the service standards have not been defined in the contract agreement, the project includes sending real-time SMS to highway users, alerting them on traffic conditions.