Traffic congestion at toll plazas are a regular scene in India. But things are now changing, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has come up with a new scheme which says if more than 20 vehicles accumulate in any of the lane at any point of time, all the toll gates have to be raised and let the vehicles pass without collecting any fees.

This scheme is applicable to all the toll plazas on Outer Ring Road and will be implemented from 1st April, 2019 onwards. Explaining the condition, Chief General Manager, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, S. M. Imam said that this scheme was incorporated to prevent avoidable traffic jams on particular stretches of Outer Ring Road (ORR).

The stretch towards Nanakramguda which is an IT hub in Hyderabad is one such place where vehicles are not cleared on time, thus creating traffic jams. This scheme proposed by the authorities will also improve the efficiency of the staff working on toll plazas, thus ensuring smoother movement of vehicles.

This is actually a very good initiative taken by the authorities. It is a very common sight in metro cities to find vehicles stuck in toll plaza or toll lane at peak hours. If this scheme is found effective, authorities can think of expanding it to more and more toll plazas in the country eventually.

According to a report, a new agency has been selected by Hyderabad authorities as the term of the present agency came to an end of February 28, 2019. These toll plazas are a huge source of revenue for the authorities. The outgoing agency was paying around Rs 87.03 lakh per day. The new agency which got the tender this time had quoted Rs 24.29 crore per month which is approximately 81 lakh per day.

Authorities have also confirmed that the monthly passes issued to the vehicles by the previous agency will be migrated to new agency. Once the owner surrenders the existing monthly pass the new agency will issue a new monthly passes for the vehicle.

This move from the Hyderabad municipal authorities may be replicated in other parts of the country in future. This is a long standing demands of many motorists, as many feel that charging toll during jams is unjust. Recently, the authorities at Hyderabad decided to exempt private vehicles from paying toll on the days preceding Sankranti, a widely celebrated harvest festival in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This was done in order to make sure that people traveling home from other states for the festival are not delayed by long traffic jams that usually occur during festivals and ‘long weekend’ holidays.

Via DeccanChronicle