Our Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes may have turned into wastepaper, but there’s a silver lining for motorists
Massive traffic jam at Bandra Worli Sea Link as motorists did not have change to pay the toll. Pics/Shadab Khan
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Our Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes may have turned into wastepaper, but there’s a silver lining for motorists.
Those who cross toll plazas on their daily commute and don’t have any change can heave a sigh of relief as CM Devendra Fadnavis yesterday announced that all state roads will be toll tax-free till the midnight of November 11.
From Tuesday morning, the toll plazas at the five entry points to Mumbai witnessed huge traffic jams with motorists getting stuck for almost 45-60 minutes.
Welcome move
Last morning, Pune-based toll activist Sanjay Shirodkar appealed that the government stop toll collection for at least a week. In the evening, Fadnavis through his official Twitter account @CMOMaharashtra tweeted, “Government Of Maharashtra decides that all State roads will be toll tax free till 11th November midnight.”
Even after the tweet, there was confusion among Mumbaikars whether they can travel free on the sea link as well as cross the five toll plazas to enter the city. Clearing the confusion, the CM further tweeted, “This includes all the tolls in Mumbai (entry points and within Mumbai) and Maharashtra.”
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari also tweeted, “It has been decided to suspend Toll across all National Highways till midnight of November 11 to facilitate smooth traffic movement.”
Motorist speak
Shreepad Gawde, a commuter, said, “I got stuck in the traffic at the sea link because all motorists had Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, making it difficult for the toll operators to give change to all. The toll waiver is a relief. Had this decision been announced last night (Tuesday) itself, these massive jams could have been avoided.”
Another motorist, Vipul Mane, said, “The decision taken by the government is a smart one, but at the same time, there should have been proper planning so that the common man wouldn’t have had to suffer.”
Metro mayhem
Commuters travelling via the Metro also had to face a lot of inconvenience with the MMOPL not accepting Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in the morning. Later, Fadnavis tweeted saying that MMOPL has been directed to accept the high denomination notes. This helped in avoiding further chaos during the evening peak-hour rush.
An MMOPL spokesperson said, “Following clarification by the Ministry of Finance through a tweet, Mumbai Metro One will accept currency notes of R500 and R1,000 denominations till November 11, 2016.”
Chaos at SGNP
Yesterday also saw a lot of chaos at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) gate — authorities at the ticket counter refused to accept the banned currency.
An SGNP official said, “Many tourists unnecessarily argued with us, saying that we should accept Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and give tickets, but we refused to. The revenue generated at the SGNP on Wednesday was around Rs 1.4-1.5 lakh, against the Rs 2.4-2.6 lakh collected every day on an average.”
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