Travel to get cheaper by 33% on Delhi-Gurgaon expressway

NEW DELHI: The cost of travel on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway in a month will soon come down by around one-third following a new pact signed today by NHAI and other parties involved in the project.

"To avail the concessions for local traffic, earlier the user public were paying for 60 trips per month by taking e-tag on payment of one-time deposit of Rs 1500. Now the user public have to pay for only 40 trips without payment of cost of e-tag," an official statement from NHAI said.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which provides concessions to the local public for the use of the expressway, was signed today.

The revised scheme is to be implemented within 15 days. The local traffic will get a concession of 50 per cent for personal traffic and 33 per cent for commercial traffic, the statement said.

"Thus, the cost of monthly pass for local traffic will be reduced by 1/3rd. This will enable more and more user public of local traffic to take monthly passes and avail concessions which will help in reducing the congestion at toll plazas due to less cash transactions," it added.

The issues relates to signing of the MoU containing terms of settlement in the matter of termination of the Concession Agreement of Delhi-Gurgaon BOT (Toll) Project between National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Concessionaire and the Financial Institutions (IDFC and 4 other Banks), a statement said.

The issue was heard by the Delhi High Court on August 30 and the court had granted a short adjournment till September 17 as requested by the "Concessionaire" for responding to the MOU, it said.

The matter was heard in the Delhi High Court on September 17 and 18 and NHAI, the Concessionaire and Senior Lenders signed the MOU in the court today, it added.

IDFC and 4 other public sector banks are recognised as Senior Lenders for the project for a debt of Rs 1,203 crore by reducing their exposure/debt by Rs 367 crore, which means that Rs 367 crore would be returned by the Concessionaire to the Senior Lenders, it said.

In order to reduce the congestion at the toll plazas, additional 11 lanes will be provided at km 24 and additional 4 lanes at km 42 in a phased manner. Hand-held devices will also be used for faster clearance, it said.

If the Concessionaire does not implement the measures as per MOU, NHAI reserved its right to terminate the Concession Agreement after giving a show cause notice, it added.