Currency ban: No highway tolls till November 18

It is a good time to be going on a roadtrip considering you have cash in hand and a vehicle at your disposal. The demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes in our country has brought cheer for a lot of us, no toll charges on National Highways till November 18 midnight!

The earlier deadline for not paying at toll booths across the country had been November 14. With the ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes being out of circulation, people are saving their ₹100 notes and other change. At such a time if precious tender is spent on toll booths then the already inconvenienced public will find itself in a more difficult situation. Sensing a possibility of public revolt the government has extended this deadline. Hopefully, by then, the country will be returning to normalcy. However, with ATMs being recalibrated and new currency notes not available with more half the public the move will bring relief to inter-city travellers.

The decision has been taken to ensure smooth traffic movement across all National Highways and provide relief to cash-starved people who are queuing up outside banks. The government had earlier decided to accept the withdrawn notes at toll plazas till November 11 midnight but that led to chaos in the absence of adequate change, causing massive traffic jams.

"We reviewed the situation and decided to suspend the collection of fees," Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had said. When asked about the loss due to non-collection of toll fee, Gadkari said the government will bear it.

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