KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Mian Anjum Nisar has called for stopping double toll collection on the Faisalabad-Pindi Bhattian motorway (M-3), asking the government to shift the second toll plaza somewhere else. He said that the purpose of the motorway was to make travel faster and safer, but the government was doing otherwise and inviting public anger.
He said that the government had been collecting toll tax from interchange to interchange, and the motorists paying it without any complaint though the rate of the toll tax was increased frequently. He said that the commuters had to wait for hours for their turn to pay the toll due to manual way of tax collection.
Mian Anjum Nisar alleged that the National Highway Authority was making it difficult for the travelers using the motorway instead of facilitating them. He said businessmen had been complaining that they had to wait for hours in the queues at the recently reactivated toll plaza to pay the toll tax, which increased fuel consumption, and it was a waste of time as well.
If the motorists had to wait for hours on the motorway then what was the difference between the GT Road and the motorway, he wondered. The National Highway Authority (NHA) should introduce a mechanism and announce categorically that the vehicles without any balance on their E-cards would not be allowed on the motorway.
He said that constructing two toll plazas over a distance of just two kilometers did not make any sense. The motorists paid the toll tax at the Pindi Bhattian interchange, just two kilometers off the preceding toll plaza. He said that two toll plazas in the same vicinity resulted in a constant traffic jam in the area.
He termed toll collection in long queues in the middle of the road an unwise decision. He said that the practice of receiving toll tax on the motorway in the past had proved to be a failure, and yet the same exercise had again been started.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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