Toll plazas on Ring road: New taxes on all vehicles Tolling boxes causing inconvenience to people

LAHORE: Maintenance of Ring road whether is correct or not but it has provided another way to Punjab government how to disturb the already aching masses which after some steps on the same road are asked to pay tax money for traveling, The Frontier Post has learnt on Friday.
Independent Ring Road Authority (IRRA) that had been established for the completion of the mega project is permanently responsible for the maintenance of Ring road. IRRA gave its tender to National Logistic Cell (NLC), a civilian-cum-military organization.
After getting the tender NLC has established 26 points on the Rind road that was constructed aimed facilitating the masses.
According to this scribe, these tolling boxes established on the different locations of road are charging different rupees from the people using this road. They had fixed for car Rs 10, for wagon Rs 20, for bus 50 and for all types of trucks 60 rupees. Since the first day the project got so much criticism. Many scuffles have been seen among the people use this road and the staffer of the tolling boxes.
People who go to Lahore International Airport often face embarrassment and inconvenience owing to this newly introduced project by the government. Naeem, a car driver said ‘we came here to Lahore International Airport’ to receive the our guest coming from the Saudi Arabia and we face so much inconvenience when the staff of the NLC stopped them and charged 20 rupees just for this short cut, the ring road point that is leading toward airport’.
Same was said by a wagon driver who was of the view ‘this is a new way of disturbing them who after working the whole day get some money’.
This is pertinent to mention here that NLC had hired almost 250 people to run the tolling boxes and invested a big amount to establish these boxes. The staffer deployed there had been working for three different shifts of twenty four hours. No doubt the initiative in the perspective of providing jobs to jobless people is appreciable but it the disturbance the people are facing is not in the favor of the concerned department.
Talking to this scribe, Director Operation Asim said that we also had made services roads and the people who do not want to give money as tax should use the service road’. He said this is a mega project and that is why the government decided to establish this like an independent authority. ‘The governments of the foreign countries establish independent authorities’ to create mega projects and for their maintenance’, he said.
Director said the most of the scuffles had been observed between the government officials and the NLC staffer and between the lawyers and them. When asked that why this big amount was being charged from the vehicle drivers he said ‘how the electricity bill could be paid that provides lighting all the way’.
He said that the maintenance of the road was a big matter and this was not possible without taking such step. He said there had been deployed two people on one tolling box and there had been 26 total boxes while 12 people worked there at one box for three shifts day and night. ‘From where they will get the salary and how it will be possible the maintenance of this road’, he added.