Maharashtra govt to exempt commuters from toll in heavy traffic
Everyone hates toll plazas. The hour-long waits to pay a sum of Rs 30-90 can certainly get on one's nerves. But now, according to a new directive from the Public Works Department (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation) minister, Eknath Shinde, we might not have to pay at a toll plaza in Maharashtra if there is a huge traffic.
Shinde stated he would ensure that this order would be issued to all toll companies across the state. According to him, the biggest issue that people have with toll plazas isn't paying the toll itself, but waiting in the frustratingly long lines.
This problem was brought up in an Upper House debate during the calling attention notion by the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) and Congress legislators. They demanded that vehicles should be allowed to pass through tolls without paying in case of a heavy traffic to help ease congestion. NCP legislator Vidya Chavan used the infamous Dahisar toll, one of the entry points to Mumbai and which can take hours to cross, as an example to prove her point.
Shinde had also announced at the Assembly that an e-toll system, like the one on the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, would be introduced at all toll plazas across Maharashtra in the next six months nine of these will be installed on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. NCP's Ajit Pawar also suggested that a fourth lane on the expressway be made wherever possible to accommodate broken-down vehicles a major contributor to road accidents.
