The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has finalised the toll rates for the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME), which would come into effect from December 25.
The 59.77km-long expressway, starting from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Kashi toll plaza in Meerut, was made fully operational for commuters in April. NHAI officials said vehicles, such as jeeps/cars, will be charged ₹ 140 for travelling the entire distance (on one side) from Sarai Kale Khan to Kashi toll plaza while the toll rate would be somewhere between ₹ 225 and ₹ 900 for different categories of light and heavy commercial vehicles for plying on the same stretch.
According to the toll rate chart, the per kilometre distance for the entire stretch (one side) would be about ₹2.34.
‘The DME has entry points at Sarai Kale Khan, Indirapuram, Dundahera, Dasna, Rasoolpur-Sikrod, Bhojpur and Kashi toll plaza. The toll will be directly deducted from the bank accounts of commuters, whose vehicles are fitted with FASTags. Such vehicles will be detected with the help of the automatic number plate readers (ANPRs) installed at the entry/exit exit points,’ said Arvind Kumar, project director of NHAI.
In case of vehicles which do not have Fastags, the authority will recover double the toll at the exit points. Earlier in February, the Union government had made it mandatory for all vehicles to be linked to the FASTag system, which enables a vehicle to pass through toll plazas without having to pay toll in cash and cut traffic queues.
‘If a car travels full distance, its owner will have to pay ₹140 for covering one side of the expressway. If it returns within 24 hours, the toll rate for the return journey will be halved. The rates will come into effect from December 25. Commuters will not have to pay any toll for the routes which have not been mentioned in the rate chart,’ added Kumar.
One such route mentioned in the rate chart is Sarai Kale Khan, for which toll rates have been fixed for exit to only three points at Rasoolpur-Sikrod, Bhojpur and Kashi toll plaza. No rates have been defined for exit at Indirapuram, Dundahera and Dasna in Ghaziabad.
According to NHAI, the annual toll collection on the expressway is estimated to be about ₹111.39 crore with cars/jeeps/light motor vehicles accounting for about 82% of the revenue and buses/trucks etc accounting for the remaining 14%.
The DME has three phases — Phase 1 links Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi and UP Gate in Ghaziabad; Phase 2 connects UP Gate and Dasna in Ghaziabad while Phase 4 connects Dasna to Meerut. Phase 4 is a six-lane 32-km access-controlled alignment between Dasna and Meerut.
According to official estimates, Phase 1 caters to about 120,000 passenger car units (PCUs) per day while Phase 2 caters to about 60,000 PCUs per day. Phase 4 caters to about 40,000 PCUs.
Officials said no two-wheelers, three-wheelers or slow-moving vehicles will be allowed on expressway lanes. The inner three lanes on each side have been dedicated as expressway lanes under the DME project.