Delhi Border Fee Booths: Delhi set to scrap border fee booths, explore alternative revenue sources, ET Infra
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Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and LG V K Saxena on Wednesday said there was a need to get rid of physical entry fee collection points on the city's borders, agreeing to Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari's push for the removal of these booths.TOI has learnt that both Gupta and Saxena agreed to the suggestion of exploring new sources of revenue for MCD, which annually generates about ₹800-900 crore from entry fee, in a meeting with the minister.Gadkari said the booths installed on main carriageways cause huge "harassment" to commuters and losses due to waste of man-hours and congestion.The minister (Gadkari) suggested that the Delhi govt find new sources for revenue, including from property development or minor additional charge on vehicles. He said the collection of entry fee and green cess are nothing less than public loot while highlighting the huge investment made in highway development," a source said.When Gadkari said the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will approach the Supreme Court to seek a stop on collection of Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) or green cess, Saxena responded by saying the issue can be resolved without going to court and a way will be found out soon, sources said.MCD officials, who were present in the meeting, maintained that the revenue foregone would have a huge impact on the civic body's annual budget, which is around ₹5,000 crore.Delhi PWD minister Parvesh Verma, environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa and MoS (road transport) Harsh Malhotra also attended the meeting where all ongoing national highway projects were reviewed. Last week, top officials from both the Delhi govt and the MCD had agreed to have Multi-Lane Free Flow (MMLF) toll and entry fee collection system to do away with physical booths.On the decisions taken at the meeting, officials said that the NHAI will carry out a technical study to explore the possibility of an underground link (tunnel) from Gyarah Murti to the proposed elevated road from INA to Nelson Mandela Road in Vasant Kunj. "This will help decongest the Sardar Patel Marg, which gets completely choked during morning and evening peak hours and sees frequent VIP movements," said an official.In a statement, the CM office also said a feasibility study will be carried out for a tunnel connecting Sarai Kale Khan to the IGI airport.Officials said it was also decided in the meeting that the NHAI will soon take over three NH stretches - Haryana-Delhi Border to Punjabi Bagh (18.5 km), Ashram to Badarpur (7.5 km) and Mehrauli to Gurgaon Border (8.5 km) - and will make them signal free after preparing detailed project reports. The PWD will maintain the service road and drains along these highway stretches, they added.Similarly, the Delhi govt will avail the Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) to complete the construction of service roads along UER-II.After the meeting, the CM said, "NHAI projects worth ₹35,000 crore are underway in Delhi. Work to build a 7-km underground tunnel from Shiv Murti to Nelson Mandela Road is underway. Work on the construction of an elevated road from INA to IGI Airport is going on."She added that the NHAI has also taken over the building of drainage system around its roads and this will "eliminate issues that arise due to multiple agencies" and PWD will help it. The CM said theNational Highways Authority of India has also approved road overbridge (RoB) and road underbridge (RuB) projects worth Rs 150 crore. "Projects worth ₹1.25 lakh crore have been carried out for Delhi and I am thankful to the Centre for that," she said.
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