[drmohitg]

After months of speculation finally the court has ordered yesterday to remove toll at the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway for all private vehicles. Only 4 out of the existing 16 booths will function to collect toll from commercial vehicles. This is such a relief as off late the expressway had become redundant since whatever time was saved on it got usually wasted at the toll booth which saw huge lines and total lack of any driving etiquette among drivers. Hopefully the situation will much improve now and the huge traffic snarls that had become common at the toll will be no longer there.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/d...om=home-cities

[vap2151]

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[lapis_lazuli]

It seems that the toll will now be collected at the Manesar side exit: Kherki I think. Amount: INR56 is what I gather, for cars venturing further out of Gurgaon. It's become expensive then: earlier Gurgaon toll was INR21 and the next toll was INR25 IIRC. I had been to this place Bawal, about 40-50 kms ahead of Manesar. Paid INR46. Now it is INR56! Or am I missing something here?

[Eddy]

I have heard that there was a huge jam (as usual) before and after the toll plaza today morning.

Can anyone confirm this, and the reason why ?

[mukeshgoel]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

It seems that the toll will now be collected at the Manesar side exit: Kherki I think. Amount: INR56 is what I gather, for cars venturing further out of Gurgaon. It's become expensive then: earlier Gurgaon toll was INR21 and the next toll was INR25 IIRC. I had been to this place Bawal, about 40-50 kms ahead of Manesar. Paid INR46. Now it is INR56! Or am I missing something here?

Read in the newspaper (HT) that it was 21 + 27 earlier. Now they have combined both with 4/- hike for each toll (Rs.8 hike total) from today, making it Rs.56/-.

[fine69]

I live in Delhi and have worked in Gurgaon for 5 years and the toll was a nightmare. However, I don't think its going to improve the situation at all. The traffic that earlier piled up on the toll would now start piling up at the first flyover besides Ambience Mall, Shankar Chowk and the left turn towards Cyber City. The next jam that we all encounter a lot of times is the IFFCO chowk exit which blocks the entire expressway.

While going to Delhi one would probably zoom past the toll but get stuck on various other exits as the traffic would start piling up at these exits.

The only change I anticipate would be not having to shell 21 rupees for an expressway that becomes the slowest during peak hours.

[phamilyman]

I think it is a colossal failure of the Haryana government and the respective govt secretary and traffic police heads need to be sacked.

The problem was partly of illogical bill amounts (why charge 21 which no one will have in change, and not 20?) and simply protecting the tag lane and enforcing it. Had they enforced the tag lane seriously (i.e police cooperation and heavy challans for those breaking it), the mess would've never happened. hardly many of the regular users bought a tag (1500 or so) - esp commercial vehicles!

of course, the resulting chaos was intolerable for the common folk and the highcourt did what it could - end this misery. But that's an infeasible solution to financing urban infrastructure in the long run.

Doubling the toll at the second toll is silly. Everyone knows that the vehicles at KM24 were easily 4-5 times the vehicles at the KM42 toll.

Logically it is incorrect also. This road is used mostly by NCR drivers and not the long distance vehicles. Why have the long distance vehicles pay for a road that's a lifeline for NCR? If that's inadequate, then are tax payers are going to pay for any deficit in the earnings? This kills the whole user pays concept.

[sgiitk]

My son was working in Gurgaon and living in Dwarka and certain times used to be hell. When returning for Gurgaon via Delhi I was warned that avoid certain time windows at all costs.

[drmohitg]

I agree it was a failure on the part of management and traffic police to have created this mess called the toll booth. Right from ensuring tag lanes are maintained as such and the hilarious figure of Rs 21. But in this case I feel, we the citizens of NCR are also to be blamed. No one was ready to wait in the queue and used to just jump the queue and make up multiple lines where none should have existed. The speed with which those poor toll booth operators used to operate was phenomenal but we ensured that everyone gets stuck by not showing any driving etiquette whatsoever.

The planning was equally horrible. Quite a major chunk of the traffic goes to Ambience mall and they could have probably made the entry to the mall free. Then while coming to Delhi the last entry point on the expressway is so close to the toll booths that the cars using that entry and trying to go into the tag lanes had to literally take on the traffic coming down the expressway head on which created this huge gridlock and many a damaged bumpers.

I am aware that now the gridlock will/might happen at the junctions ahead since there wont be any toll booths to hold the traffic. But I am equally happy that I will not have to pay for bad management and enforcement.

[mayankk]

Done. Finished. Over.
Thank the lord.
Breezed to office for once.

Also, why worry? A sort of pilot already happened sometime back, when no toll was being collected for almost a month, maybe more. There were no jams as far as iffco, when I was commuting. Beyond that, I don't know.

[libranof1987]

How are they planning on managing traffic that comes from Udyog Vihar and wants to get on the Expressway to go to Ambience Mall/Gurgaon. Until now, the toll traffic slowed everything down so it was manageable.

Now that the toll is gone, traffic itself might go up; people would rather prefer the Expressway over MG rd/old highway.

[mints21]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

My son was working in Gurgaon and living in Dwarka and certain times used to be hell. When returning for Gurgaon via Delhi I was warned that avoid certain time windows at all costs.

Sir, you are correct. I have myself seen and felt this pain. Most recent was on the 14 February 2014 when I was coming after finishing the board meeting of Nestle at 6pm. It was raining heavily and there were a lot of marriages on that day. It took me almost 45 minutes to cross this toll plaza. My colleague who was to take a jet flight at 7:45pm to Mumbai missed the flight. The moment we crossed the toll we found ourselves being greeted by so many marriages on the various marriage halls which are more on the left side from Gurgaon to New Delhi than on the right hand side.

Otherwise, I have never had a waiting period of 10-15 mins during the normal course.

[Jeroen]

We live in South Delhi, Vasant Vihar, and work inCybercity, Gurgaon.

This toll was a real PITA. It was a huge improvement when for several weeks, no toll was charged. But as usual, remove one bottle neck and the next one shows up.

So time, will tell if this really improves my commute. The morning never was that bad as Im usually at the office around 0800am and there isnt that much traffic on the road, but going back after say 1600 hours was horrible.

I'm abroad at the moment and wont get back to Delhi until end of next week, but I'm looking forward to no toll!

Jeroen

[Zigor]

There are many reasons why this was a failure from Day 1:

1. There is absolutely no logic behind the figure of Rs.21. No one has change (even the toll guy). Hence, long traffic jam.

2. Indian drivers don't exercise any kind of discipline when they wait in a queue. I believe everyone has watched 'Fast and the Furious' way too many times .Also Tag lines are for tag users. There should be strict penalty for 'over smart drivers'.

3. It is a government failure as this road is used by different kind of users. Hence, there should be no toll in the first place.

4. No traffic mangement by Traffic police/toll personnal e.t.c

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Zigor

There are many reasons why this was a failure from Day 1:

1. There is absolutely no logic behind the figure of Rs.21. No one has change (even the toll guy). Hence, long traffic jam.

2. Indian drivers don't exercise any kind of discipline when they wait in a queue. I believe everyone has watched 'Fast and the Furious' way too many times .Also Tag lines are for tag users. There should be strict penalty for 'over smart drivers'.

3. It is a government failure as this road is used by different kind of users. Hence, there should be no toll in the first place.

4. No traffic mangement by Traffic police/toll personnal e.t.c

I agree. It's as if everybody just goes full postal as soon as they see the queues. Absolutely crazy people get.
And the toll operator never made it a practice of excluding non tag from tag users. Only one in 4 cars using the tag lanes had tags. The second you maintain 10 feet from the car in front, some mental cabby or commuter would barge in.
Stupid was in the air around the booth. Normal working junta, quite a few with Up plates, who were quite normal at Dnd would behave like morons at ggn.

But anyway, I read in the pagespaper today that the ggn police, in its infinite (lack of) wisdom, shut down the ambience mall uturn!!!!
So that means people have to go through the toll. The same piece said they had to go till rajokri!!!!
Is this true? If so, then it sounds plain spiteful, and petty, on the GPD's part.