Kherki Daula toll shift date in 2 weeks

The Centre and state government are in agreement that the Kherki Daula toll plaza has to be shifted, but all eyes are on a feasibility report that will be put before the board at the next meeting to be held 2 weeks from now.

A committee will be formed in a day or two to prepare the feasibility report which will assess the impact of the shifting of the toll from Kherki Daula to Sehrawan near Panchgaon, 11km away.

“After a high-level meeting on Kherki Daula toll shifting on 23 August, all stakeholders concurred that a committee must be formed to prepare a feasibility report which will be submitted in the next 15 days,” said Ashok Sharma, project director (PD), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

“The shifting has to happen for sure but the grievances of the consortium of five banks has to be addressed before the shifting. The committee will prepare a feasibility report for that purpose,” Sharma said.

Sharma will head the committee while representatives of five banks will be its members. The committee will mainly look at three things — the revenue loss from the shift, the impact on traffic volume and the legal tangles involved.

The consortium, led by Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), has State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and Bank of India (BOI) as members.

The consortium had formed a special purpose vehicle — the Millennium City Expressway Limited (MCEPL) — to run the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway from April 2014 to Jan 2023. This came after the termination of the previous operator— the Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited — by the Delhi High Court.

S Raghuraman, chief executive officer (CEO), MCEPL, said, “From April 2014 till date, we have assessed a loss of Rs 98 crore due to toll exemption to locals of 31 villages. The exemption was not part of the agreement.”

“Also, the present volume of traffic crossing the toll averages around 75,000 per day. The shifting of the toll from the present site to the new location 11km away would definitely reduce traffic volume,” he said.

The MCEPL owns the 27.7km stretch between Rao Tula Ram (RTR) Marg and Kherki Daula toll plaza. If the toll is shifted to Sehrawan, then it would add another 11km to the road length under MCEPL’s control.