The opening sequence of the classic Ron Livingston starer “Office Space” (1999, Mike Judge), succinctly depicts the popular saying – “the other queue always moves faster”. I always remember this sequence when I see motorists trying a variety of tricks to change lanes at toll plazas on Indian highways. The drivers display daring skills to exit lanes, make lateral moves towards other lanes, mostly blocking the movement in both the lanes and causing an instant commotion – honking and showering of expletives. The show is quite entertaining, if you are not in a rush; else it is annoying and dismaying at the same time.
As a regular driver on the highways and expressways, I can vouch that the system of toll collection still needs tremendous improvement – both in terms of operations as well as the method. Inefficient operations and faulty methods have nullified significant part of the benefits of infrastructure upgrade and Fastag payments. Many highway users have also expressed their dissatisfaction over frequent avoidable delays at toll plazas.
Travelling across the states of Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh in the past one month, I have observed the following problems at various toll plazas at expressways, national highways and state highways.
Operations
1 Faulty equipment: This is probably the most common problem faced by road users. The scanners or readers installed at toll plazas are often faulty and they are not able to read the Fastag promptly. In most cases vehicles have to stop for longer, move back and forth so that the scanner camera could detect the Fastag. In many cases, the toll staff use hand held cameras and scan each Fastag manually.
2. Dispute over exemption: It is common to experience people having a lengthy argument with the toll staff over their eligibility for exemption from toll payment. Usually there is no manager available to make a decision. The poor toll clerk has to bear the unruly behavior and threats. There is no mechanism to pull the disputing vehicles on side. They block the toll lane while arguing with the clerk; while the long queue builds up behind them.
Of course, I am not mentioning the quintessential argumentative Indian who make it a case of showing their privilege by insisting on not paying the toll.
3. Change shortages: After implementation of mandatory Fastag payments, the cash collection at toll plazas has reduced materially. In cases where the Fastags are invalid or not available, the road users need to pay cash. Given that toll amounts are often in odd figures, returning change takes a long time. Payment using UPI is a solution, but unstable/unavailable networks, PoS not working etc. are common issues.
4. Hawkers and beggars are becoming a common nuisance on all busy toll plazas.
5. Heavy commercial vehicles (Trucks and buses) often do not adhere to the lanes marked for them at toll plazas. It is common to see overloaded trucks getting stuck in narrow lanes; or a bus taking too long to settle the toll payment.
Also, the 3-4 lane roads suddenly widen to 10-12 lanes at toll plazas. The rules for choosing toll plaza lanes are not defined. The drivers are often seen crisscrossing the road, attempting to enter the least crowded lane.
6. Public utilities: Most of the newly constructed highways lack basic public utilities like drinking water and toilets. While driving through over 1000kms of highways in five states, I did not find a single public toilet or drinking water facility built by the road operator. In many cases like KMP, there is even no privately run facility. Considering that India has the distinction of being the diabetic capital of the world, not having a public urinal for hundreds of kilometers is a case of criminal negligence.
Methods
1. In case of brownfield projects (widening of highways), it is common to see that toll collection starts almost immediately with the commencement of work. The contractors are mostly insensitive to the inconvenience caused to the commuters. They blatantly violate the terms of the contract and climate control norms. The service roads or unpaved narrow passages provided for commuters are pathetic, especially when the commuters are being forced to pay high toll amounts.
2. The toll collection continues even when the operator does not maintain the road as per the prescribed standards. A 50km drive on the prestigious KMP Expressway on the outskirts of Delhi, would show how the commuters are being forced to pay a toll charge of over Rs2/km for driving on a very poor quality and extremely dangerous road. There are frequent accidents purely due to poor quality of the road and bad management (illegal intrusions, wrong side driving etc.).
3. Toll charges are frequently hiked, apparently to adjust for the higher inflation. There are numerous cases of toll charges continuing even after expiry of the original concession period.
It is pertinent to note that taxpayers are already paying double tax for using highways. Every motorist pays highway cess on each liter of fuel purchased, for construction of highways. They also pay toll charges while the roads are under construction, sometimes for 4-5years. Over and above, they pay toll charges for using the roads when it is completed. The users need to be treated with respect and a certain degree of sensitiveness, not like slaves as is the case presently.
The NHAI must consider extending the toll collection period instead of hiking toll rates, just like the banks are raising loan tenure instead of hiking EMI amount in case of interest rate hikes.
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