Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway: Motorists demand restoration of e-tag system

Long queues, delays at toll plazas irk travellers

ISLAMABAD: Motorists and commuters have demanded the restoration of electronic toll collection system (e-tag) on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway (M-1).

Regular travellers said that the e-tag system was the finest method to avoid delays and long queues at interchanges.

Zain Malik,a motorist, who travels daily from Attock to Islamabad said that after the closure of the e-tag lane at Burhan Interchange Toll Plaza, motorists had to wait in long queues, causing waste of precious time at both entry and exit points of the motorway.

He said that with the separation of toll plazas of M-1 and the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway in Islamabad, long queues had become commonplace as the old toll plaza had 12 booths, while the new one had only six.

Bilal Ahmed, who commutes between Kamra and Islamabad almost on a daily basis, said that in the past travelling to Islamabad in a van via motorway was the best option to reach office on time, but now the motorway took more time than the Grand Trunk Road (N-5).

Shafqat Ali, a van driver, who drives between Attock and Rawalpindi, said that he often had altercations with passengers over delays, but he could do nothing to avoid long queues at the Islamabad-exit of M-1.

He said that re-carpeting work being done by the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) on a patch between the new and the old toll plaza in Islamabad had further worsened their woes.

When contacted, an NHA official said that the e-tag system was suspended on the M-1 due to some technical problems.

He said that it would be restored soon.

The NHA official said that as the M-1 had been handed over to the FWO for 20 years for its re-carpeting on a build-operate-transfer basis, it had become difficult to manage the toll collection through a single electronic tag system.

To meet this requirement, the FWO introduced M-tag system on M-2, while e-tag system on the M-1 had to be suspended as the old Islamabad toll plaza was in possession of the FWO.

The Senate Standing Committee on Communications has also issued directives to the NHA to ensure single e-tag systems on all motorways of the country.

The NHA instead of abolishing the M-tag system has suspended the e-tag.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2016.