
Motorists at the Thikariya toll plaza on Ajmer Road in Jaipur are waiting five to eight minutes during peak hours despite FASTag, with daily traffic tripling to nearly 48,000 vehicles since operations began. The toll plaza, originally built with 12 lanes, now has 14, but the increase has not kept pace with demand.
Plans to expand the plaza have been stalled for eight years, although land acquisition and a detailed project report were completed in 2018. The toll collection agency was changed in 2023, but no expansion has started. An NHAI official said the authority is analysing FASTag transaction data and will initiate lane expansion if congestion reports justify it.
The eight-year delay in expanding a toll plaza where daily traffic has tripled points to a gap between data collection and execution. NHAI is now using FASTag transaction records to assess congestion, but the decision to expand remains conditional on those reports. Until the analysis is completed and acted on, the nearly 48,000 daily users will continue to face delays that the original 12-lane design was never meant to handle.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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