CHENNAI: To ensure quick passage of vehicles in toll plazas, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced that when there are long queues, vehicles will be allowed to pass without paying any toll till the queue is less than 100 m. “If there is a queue of waiting vehicles of more than 100 m due to some reason, the vehicles will be allowed to pass without paying a toll.
For this purpose, a yellow line at a distance of 100 m from the toll booth will be marked in each toll lane. This is to inculcate further sense of accountability in toll plaza operators,” the NHAI said in a recent directive to toll plaza operators.
With the implementation of a mandatory electronic payment system called FasTag for collecting user fees since February, there is a reduced halt time for vehicles at toll gates. However, the average time for a vehicle to cross the toll gate should be 10 seconds, added NHAI. The existing toll gates are emphasised to have a new design and future toll plazas are to be built as per traffic projections for the next 10 years.
NHAI sources said an order to this effect has just been released and they are working on modalities to implement the new direction. However, motorists said there should be an automatic system to identify vehicles lined up beyond 100 m. “There’s no use of just having a yellow line 100 m away, as motorists’ money can still be deducted via FasTag.
There should be an automatic system that identifies vehicles beyond 100 m and disables the payment deduction from their accounts,” said a member of a truckers’ association. Similarly, if a vehicle, with a functional FasTag with sufficient balance is unable to pay owing to malfunctioning of the infrastructure, it should be allowed to pass, he added.
CM talks to beneficiaries. inspects grievance-redressal
Chennai: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday interacted with beneficiaries under the Scheme ‘CM in Your Constituency’ from Theni, Ranipet, Vellore and Chennai over the telephone, while inspecting the progress made in the scheme at the TN e-Governance Agency office. Stalin inspected how petitions are being registered, and the action taken on them. He also enquired about the department-wise number of petitions received and how many of them have been resolved. During Stalin’s election campaign, about four lakh petitions were received, and of them, 2.7 lakh have been registered so far. After registration, an SMS is sent to the petitioner. District-level officials are working on petitions.