Around 500 BJP workers on Wednesday staged protest at the DND flyway (Delhi-Noida-Direct flyway) demanding that the stretch be made toll-free, leading to major traffic snarls on several arterial roads.Led by BJP leaders Vimla Batham and Nawab Singh Nagar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers reached the flyway, which connects Delhi and Noida, around 11 a.m. demanding that the toll be scrapped as its tenure was over.They pointed out that the Gurgaon Expressway toll, which started after the DND toll, has been discontinued but the Noida toll continues."We have asked the company to free this city from its clutches. The company is extorting money since ages," said Batham, Uttar Pradesh assembly member from Noida."We demand the CAG audit of the company to expose it. We will force the government to consider the unethical practice of toll collection," the legislator said.
A DND official told IANS that they have been "incurring heavy losses and have not been able to recover the cost", and hence, with due permission from the authorities, continue to levy the tax on vehicle users.Commuters faced a harrowing time as traffic had to be diverted to other roads following to the protest on DND."It normally takes me 45 minutes to reach Noida from Sarojini Nagar, but today it took me nearly two hours. All the bus routes were diverted because of the demonstration," Kamini Seth, a journalist, told IANS.Another commuter, Rajat Kapur, who lives in Mayur Vihar, said it took him over an hour to reach office in Noida, as compared to 15 minutes that it normally takes daily."I had to go back home, park my car and take the Metro to work. The traffic was unbelievable," he told IANS.