NEW DELHI: Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has approved the change in land use of a plot to construct a five-lane toll plaza with the RFID system and shift the old Ghazipur toll plaza running on the service lane parallel to Delhi-Meerut Expressway to avoid traffic jams.
“We have agreed to change the land use from ‘recreational’ to ‘transportation’ and the site is located next to the existing toll plaza. The initiative seeks to decongest the area and maintain smooth flow of traffic at the Ghazipur border,” said a DDA official. The decision was taken during a joint DDA meeting on Wednesday, which was attended by lieutenant governor VK Saxena.
The decision has been welcomed by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which has been pursuing DDA to provide the 7,205-square-metre land to shift the toll plaza.
“We’ve been receiving complaints about facing long traffic jams every day at the Ghazipur border service lane due to the toll collection by MCD. We have made two radio-frequency identification device booths and collect toll and environment compensation charges (ECC) there. We have also set up a facility on the pavement to recharge the RFID tags. To avoid traffic jams, we requested DDA to hand over a portion of the vacant land lying next to this booth,” said a civic official.
Now that the technical approval has been received, MCD will have to fulfil other formalities before starting the construction work. “We will need to invite public objection and finalise terms and conditions for transferring the land, including the amount we will pay DDA,” said the official. “Once the new plaza is built, we will divert commercial vehicles to it.”
There are 124 entry points to Delhi and the RFID system has been installed at 13 toll plazas for smooth collection of taxes. These 13 points handle 80-85% of commercial vehicles entering the city. “While the toll tax is collected by MCD from all commercial vehicles, ECC is collected from all goods-carrying vehicles,” they said.
To simplify the collection at other places, MCD has prepared a pilot project through FastTag at Kundli. “We are waiting for the permission for the project from the Standing Committee and the House,” he said, adding that MCD hopes to install the RFID system at 10 more points.
