Facing vandalism at Gurgaon-Faridabad toll road:Reliance Infra

Reliance Infrastructure is facing vandalism and refusal of levy payment by local villagers in Haryana at its Gurgaon-Faridabad toll plaza.
GF Toll Road Private Ltd is the subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure that operates the Gurgaon-Faridabad expressway.
"We are grappling, on a daily basis, with issues like overloading, vandalism at toll plaza, non-payment of toll, assault on our staff and also damage of property," a company spokesperson said.
It is Haryana's first toll road project built under the Public-Private-partnership model.
"Commercial vehicle operators and even local villagers in the vicinity of the road have been refusing to pay toll on the pretext that they are daily users," the spokesperson said in an e-mail response.

There have been regular incidents of violence by the local villagers at the toll plazas, he said.

The road has a large presence of commercial vehicles due to the stone crushers around Pali and Mohabatabad villages in the Faridabad district.
"We have taken various measure to deal with this issue. We are regularly educating locals on facilities and benefits provided by the highway, as well as promoting monthly passes for local truckers," the company said when asked about the measures being adopted by them to curb the menace.
We are issuing notices under the specified Act, lodging regular police complaints, and even engaging security agencies for protection of our staff, it added.

The company said even the surface of the Gurgaon- Faridabad road has started showing signs of distresses because of the huge traffic of overloaded trucks.
"Commercial vehicles carrying around three times more than the stipulated load, prematurely damages the road as it has been designed to withstand pressures of only up to certain load," the company added.
Instances of vandalism at road toll plazas have been reported earlier from states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh as certain sections are opposed to making payments.