Another toll plaza

Islamabad

There was a toll plaza already functioning on the Rawalpindi-Kohat Road near Qutbal. The National Highway Authority (NHA) has established another one on the Fatehjang-Basal Road and the distance between the two plazas is not more than 60 kilometres.

Minimum toll is Rs25 (car) and maximum Rs175 (long vehicle). Motorists, transporters and leaders of public opinion have dubbed it as an ace example of extortion and even accused that its contract has been awarded in a manner which cannot be called transparent.

A slogan has been inscribed on the toll ticket: Friendly Highways. This is adding insult to injury as the ever busy road is shabby, bumpy, dotted with countless potholes and ditches, particularly from Fatehjang onwards. Thousands of cars, vans, mini-buses, buses, trucks and long vehicles ply on it daily.

Some patchwork of course was done ahead of erecting the toll plaza as mere eyewash. It is nerve-wrecking to drive on this road and too risky at night.

“It is quite intriguing that weeks before the plaza was erected, traffic signs were installed at various points and some road patchwork was done to give it a semblance of repairs, only to justify the extortion,” pointed out an ex-MPA of PPP, who did not want to be identified here.

He said that the NHA has forgotten that this is the road where former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was attacked by terrorists. subjected to Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi (PML-Q) and State Minister for Defence Sardar Saleem Haider (PPP) had been elected from Attock. “Is it for this day, people elected these two to represent the district in parliament and in federal cabinet,” he remarked. Moreover, the third MNA from this district is Shiekh Aftab, belongs to PML-N, who also has not objected to the development.

“Instead of making extortion from public, NHA should apologise to us for keeping the road in a dilapidated condition,” Ghulam Murtaza said, who is a taxi driver from Jand but earns his livelihood in Rawalpindi and goes back to his home every weekend. He has to pay each time Rs100: while going to Jand; he pays Rs25 at the plaza near Fateh Jang and then against Rs25 at Basal toll plaza and the same amount while coming back to Rawalpindi.

Posted in: Islamabad