Off-late there are many news stories about people showing
aggression at toll-plazas in India. One has to go deeper into the issues.
Having travelled 5-6 states by road; here are some observations which may be
the cause of these aggressions:
- Collecting toll without proper roads
- No proper management of toll traffic
- Quite funny toll tax rates – with 22.50; 33.50; 21 – in most parts of the world this is simplified and the rates are rounded-up or down. In India, many instance people are waiting for exact change and many smart guys give Rs 1000 or Rs 500 notes to the toll guys (as they say toll person is bound to give them change) – all leading to waste of time and energy
- Untrained staff at toll plazas
- In Gurgaon-Delhi toll: The operator gives a packet of Namkeen instead of Rs 5 and that’s a on-going currency as taxi drivers can also return the Namkeen packet to them next time for Rs 5 :-)
- Unplanned tolls – a number of toll plazas in short distances
- No single Toll card which can work across state(s)
Am not an expert on toll-plazas, but common sense says that instead of making life easy; people get frustrated that they are paying money and wasting their time and energy. This leads to chaos and as a nation a lot of fuel gets wasted.
photo courtesy: Business Today
