'Lifting boom barriers at toll to cause loss'

Gurgaon: The concessionaire of the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway has urged the traffic police not to lift the boom barriers at the Kherki Daula toll plaza to give free passage to vehicles in case of a pile-up, citing financial losses.

Nearly 75000 vehicles cross the Kherki Daula toll plaza every day, out of which 50000 are trucks. As a result of which, the 23-lane toll plaza frequently witnesses long traffic snarls.

The situation gets worse if the U-turn near the toll plaza is blocked. And to decongest the toll plaza, the traffic cops often lift the boom barriers.

Now, in a letter to the Gurgaon Police, concessionaire Millennium City Expressways Pvt Ltd (MCEPL) has said that the lifting of boom barriers at the toll plaza in case of snarls resulted in losses of nearly Rs 57 lakh between October 2014 and March 2016 to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

"The traffic police lift the boom barriers to release their pressure without realising how it affects the collection of the toll fee," said Naveen Yadav, manager (public relations), MCEPL.

The cops said it got the letter from the MCEPL. about the "revenue loss due to prevention of concessionaire from collecting toll by local traffic police and losses incurred". "Their letter also carries a DVD which is supposed to have the CCTV footage from the toll plaza that shows the cops are lifting the boom barriers to ease congestion near the toll We will go through it and if there is a problem, then we will give necessary instructions to traffic personnel in the area," ACP (traffic) Mahender Singh told TOI.

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