Faridabad-Palwal region set to get 9th toll plaza

Bijendra Ahlawat

Faridabad and Palwal in the National Capital Region (NCR) have virtually become a hub of toll plazas, thanks to the government policy to outsource the road construction work to private companies. There are eight toll collection points in Faridabad and Palwal districts at present while a new toll plaza on the National Highway No. 2 that connects Faridabad and Mathura is slated to be opened soon. It is all set to become a bone of contention between people and the government. 

The new toll plaza to be located near Gadpuri village (midway Faridabad and Palwal) in Palwal district is likely to become functional in a couple of months, say sources in the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). This toll point is being developed to recover the cost of widening of the highway to six lanes between Faridabad and the Hodal border; the project costing Rs 2,900 crore is being executed by a private company. Though the project covers the highway from the Badarpur border to Agra in Uttar Pradesh, there will be at least one toll point on it in the region before it crosses into Uttar Pradesh, they add.

“We have completed 95 per cent of the work and the toll plaza near Gadpuri village will start functioning as soon as the project is declared completed,” says an NHAI official. Though toll rates are yet to be announced, it is expected that commuters can be charged anything between Rs 40 and Rs 80 for one-way travel by car. 

The existing toll plazas in the region include the one on the Badarpur border. It started functioning several years ago when the flyover on the Badarpur border was opened. The other seven plazas are — the toll gate on the Faridabad-Gurugram road, one on the Ballabhgarh-Sohna road, another at Maujpur village (KGP Expressway), two plazas on the KMP and KGP expressways in Palwal district, a toll barrier on  the National Highway at Tumsara in Hodal subdivision and yet another at Rahimpur village in Palwal district.

Karan Singh Dalal and Uday Bhan, Congress MLAs from Palwal and Hodal, respectively, have been opposing the setting up of the new toll barrier near Gadpuri village in the Prithla block of Palwal. They call it as an act of oppression of common people. The government cannot pass on the cost of every road project to people. One of the toll plazas at Hodal is already charging Rs 100 for one-way travel by car, they say. “We will ensure that the toll barrier near Gadpuri village is removed as soon as the Congress party comes to power in the state,” says Dalal. “The Union Government has violated the basis rule of the minimum distance of 60 km between two toll plazas,” says Uday Bhan.

“Instead of providing relief from the toll tax menace, the government is increasing the number of toll plazas in the state and the NCR region, without taking into account the problems faced by commuters,” says Varun Sheokand, a social activist. 

Meanwhile, Dalal says that there has been an inordinate delay in providing a link to the KGP Expressway passing through Palwal district. The project has not been taken up even though a delegation of eight MLAs had met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on April 25, 2018.