'Toll runners' ease woes of motorists

Anticipating a heavy Monday morning rush at the city's five entry points, 'toll runners' equipped with PoS machines were deployed to ease the queues of vehicles and expedite collection at the toll booths today.
"We have appointed toll runners to stand ahead in lanes to collect the toll either in cash or by swiping credit/debit card to avoid serpentine queues," a spokesperson from MEP Infrastructure said.
The toll runners are equipped with PoS machines for swiping cards as well as giving change, he said.
On Saturday, there was chaos at toll booths when collection resumed after 23 days. The toll operators were not fully prepared with change and many motorists tried to get rid of Rs 2,000 notes. The motorists complained of 35-40 minute snarls at the five entry points.

Businessman Aashish Chandorkar said there was usual delay at the Pune-Mumbai Expressway toll plaza despite claims of efforts being made to ease the situation.
However, another commuter said, "I took out my car at 8 AM in and reached Pune by 11 AM as in usual days. There was no chaos at all as being reported in media."

Another motorist Rupesh Gaikwad, however, had a different point of view. "After ATMs and banks, the government is making people queue up on highway toll plazas which is a waste of fuel and time of people," he said.
Meanwhile, the queues continued outside some banks while many ATMs ran out of cash.

After getting Rs 2,000 from an ATM in Ghatkopar, Manoj Mehta said, "I was lucky today to get money in less that 10 minutes against the eariler wait of one to two hours."
A senior citizen, standing in a queue before a bank in suburban Vikhroli, said, "Forget depositing and withdrawing money, these bank officials should provide chairs for us.