Chaos, fights at toll plaza, card machines rushed

GHAZIABAD: Confusion prevailed at Dasna toll plaza on NH-24 in Ghaziabad on Saturday, a few hours after toll collection resumed at the booths at the stroke of midnight on December 2.
There were some scuffles between booth attendants and vehicle owners, who, unaware of the resumption of toll tax, tried to get a free passage.
There were also instances where commuters tried to hand out old Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 notes at the booths only to be refused by the attendants.However, the situation returned to normal by Saturday evening after card swipe machines were installed at the booths.
“In one instance, a family travelling in a Maruti Zen car tried to pass through the plaza without paying the toll. An attendant blocked the car by placing a barricade in front of it. This resulted in a fight between the family members with toll booth attendants. However, the quarrel was resolved and no police complaint was registered by either parties,” SHO of Masuri police station, Dinesh Singh, said.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) later installed eight card swipe machines at the toll plaza – one each in all four booths located on either carriageway.
According to NHAI, demonetised Rs 500 currency notes will be accepted only from vehicles whose toll tax is above Rs 200. Officials said that toll can be collected at the booths through PayTM apart from card and cash payments.
“Only heavy vehicles have to pay toll tax in excess of Rs 200. For cars and other light motor vehicles, toll tax is much less than Rs 200. They have to pay the fee in cash or swipe their debit or credit cards in the machines installed at the booths. They can also use PayTM to make the payments, ,” chief general manager of NHAI, Manoj Kumar, told TOI.
All the swiping machines installed at the booths in Dasna at present are wired. By Sunday, wireless card swipe machines will be made available at the toll plaza which will further streamline toll tax collection at the booths,” he added.