Huge traffic jams were reported at several toll gates on national highways across the country with resumption of toll fee collection from Friday midnight.
The collection of toll was put on suspension since November 8 -- the day demonetisation was announced, to ensure smooth movement of traffic of highways.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had initially declared toll plazas free till November 11. But the decision was later extended till November 14 midnight and then till December 2.
“Toll suspension is extended till 2nd December midnight across all National Highways,” Gadkari tweeted on November 24.
Following the demonetisation move, the government has given a total of 50 days from 10 Nov to 30 Dec to deposit notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in any bank or post office.
On Friday, following the government’s directive to adopt digital economy, all 11 toll plazas of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd across India decided to go "cashless" by accepting toll payments through cards and mobile wallets.
RInfra is the concessionaire in 11 road projects, totalling 1,000 km and all in high-density traffic corridors, across India and has enabled all its 225 toll lanes to accept payments through debit, credit cards and mobile wallet Paytm when toll collection resumes.
Meanwhile, a total eight toll plazas under the Visakhapatnam unit of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have been equipped with electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) machines from December 2 midnight.
