The motorists and commuters demanded early restoration of electronic toll collection system (e-tag) on the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway (M-1).
The frequent travellers on the Motorway said e-tag system was best method to avoid long queues at the National Highway Authority (NHA) interchanges, but it has been closed on the M-1 for couple of months.
Zain Malik, a motorist who travels almost daily from Attock to Islamabad on his own car to perform his duties said after the closure of e-tag lane at Burhan interchange toll plaza, he has to face long queue at manual lanes which causes time at both entry and exit of the motorway.
He also said that with the separation of toll plazas of M-1 and Islamabad-Lahore Motorway at Islamabad, long queues have become a matter of routine as the old plaza had 12 booths at the exit while the new plaza has only six to eight. He said that now he has to leave his home at least 30 minutes ahead of time to reach office in time.
Bilal Ahmed, a commuter who comes from Kamra of Attock District every day, said in the past, catching a van coming to Islamabad via motorway was the best option to reach office in time but now sometimes coming by motorway costs more time than the Grand Trunk Road (N-5).
He appealed to the NHA to take remedial measures to save the commuters, especially employees of various organisations from the agony of late arrival at the offices.
Shafqat Ali, a driver of commuter van which plies on Attock-Rawalpindi route said that daily he has altercations with the passengers over delays, but he cannot help it as long queues at Islamabad exit of M-1 mar the journey from Attack to Islamabad. He said that re-carpeting work being done by Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) on the patch between new toll plaza and the old toll plaza at Islamabad has worsened their woes.
When contacted, the NHA officials said that the e-tag system was suspended on the M-1 due to some technical problems but it would become operational soon.
He said as the M-1 has been handed over to FWO for 20 years for its re-carpeting and renovation on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis, it had become difficult to manage toll collection through single e-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 also issued directives to the NHA to ensure single e-tag systems on all motorways of the country and termed the e-tag system of the NHA as the best solution but the NHA instead of abolishing the M-tag has suspended the e-tag.