Toll may be waived at peak hours in Mumbai

Mumbai: Commuters continued having a tough time at all the toll plazas in the city on Sunday, the second day after the 24-day toll exemption was lifted on Saturday, following which the traffic police department said toll charges might be exempted during the peak hours of Monday. According to the traffic department, peak traffic hours are between 6 am to 10 am and 4 pm to 8 pm on weekdays.

Joint commissioner of police (Traffic) Milind Bharambe said they would be keeping an eye on the situation before taking a call. “Sunday morning we haven’t seen a lot of traffic but during the evening peak hours on Sunday we will exempt people from payment if the situation demands so. On Monday, when people get back to work will be closely watched as well and if need be the exemption will be made,” he said.

Sunday evening saw queues at Mulund, Thane, Airoli, Worli and Vashi that were 2-3 km long, confirmed traffic police officials and commuters. A traffic police department source informed that cashless swipe machines would be made available at the toll plazas only on Monday. After the Centre demonetised the high denomination Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, collections at the city’s toll plazas were discontinued since November 10 but were re-started on December 2 midnight.

The five plazas in the city located at Mulund, Thane, Airoli, Worli and Vashi saw people waiting in queues for 20 to 25 minutes and the traffic police is likely to exempt toll on Monday after taking stock of the situation.

Travellers were exempted from paying the toll on Saturday at all the five toll plazas after the queues stretched beyond 3 km at Vashi and Dahisar specifically, for traffic heading in both directions. The long queues at the tolls affected families that stepped out on Sunday evening, with most complaints coming from Dahisar and Vashi toll plaza for the second day in a row.

Haresh Pathare (45) a resident of Vasai who was heading to meet his family at Bandra, said, “I reached the plaza at around 4.30 pm and was stuck for almost 45 minutes. The swipe machine was not working, they did not have change for my Rs 100 note so they asked me to take the Rs 490 coupon card, but I had no choice as we were already running late.” He further added, “People were having arguments and there was no change. I saw people who had their debit cards in their hands but they were being told that the machines do not work yet”.