Sweltering heat takes a toll on vehicular traffic

Ravinder Saini

Rohtak, June 10

The sweltering heat has taken a toll on vehicular traffic on highways, as around 30 per cent drop in the vehicles passed through four toll plazas located around Rohtak city has been recorded in the past over one and a half month.

As per information collected by The Tribune from the toll plazas, as many as 66,500 commercial and private vehicles used to pass through the toll barrier in April daily while the count has gone down to 46,500 vehicles per day now, leading to a considerable loss in tax collection to the toll companies.

A toll official claimed scorching heat generally led to around 10 per cent decrease in vehicular traffic, but this time, it was around 30 per cent due to scorching heat and the closure of Punjab and Haryana borders due to the farm agitation.

“In April, around 35,000 vehicles used to cross the toll barrier in a day but the count has now come down to around 24,500, resulting in a huge revenue loss to our company. This time, the temperature is much higher than previous years, forcing people to stay inside to protect themselves from heat strokes,” said Nitesh Malik, manager, Rohad Toll Plaza on the Delhi road.

He said a considerable number of commercial and personal vehicles from Punjab used to go to Delhi via Rohtak for different reasons but they were now reaching Delhi via Panipat and Sonepat due to closure of the Punjab and Haryana borders at some places in the wake of farm agitation.

“Following summer vacations, the school buses and personal vehicles being used by teachers and other staffers are not plying but all these customers are pass holders. We don’t count them in daily tax collection,” said Malik, adding that the government should persuade the farmers to open the borders.

Vinod Kumar, manager at Makrauli Toll Plaza, said, over 8,000 vehicles used to pass through his toll barrier earlier but the number had decreased to 5,600 following the sweltering heat that was wreaking havoc in the region for the past one and a half month.

Similarly, over 10,500 vehicles at Madina Toll Plaza and 13,000 vehicles used to daily cross the Dighal Toll Plaza earlier while their count has gone down by around 30 per cent in a day.

“This is for the first time when around a 30 per cent drop in the number of vehicles crossing the toll barrier has been recorded,” said an official at the Dighal Toll Plaza.