With reports about commuters facing problems due to the demonetisation drive, the NHAI on Wednesday announced that all toll plazas across the country have been asked to accept Rs500 and Rs1000 notes till November 11 night. For its part, while the Railways have sought banks' help in providing lower denominations in return, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu directed all GMs to ensure the passengers do not face any problems.
Toll plazas in several parts of the country reported long queues on Wednesday. A report from Patna said people faced inconvenience at a toll plaza at an Expressway from Patna to Bakhtiyarpur when Rs1000 and Rs500 notes were being given in expectation of exchange in lower denomination currency.
The National Highways Authority of India(NHAI) later directed toll plazas to accept higher denomination notes till Friday. "We have issued instructions to all 365 toll plazas across the country to immediately accept currency denominations of Rs500 and Rs1000 till November 11 midnight to ease the situation of jams and long queues at toll booths," NHAI Chairman Raghav Chandra said.
Welcoming the decision for banning of higher denomination notes, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said, "It will benefit the people, society and country. Genuine customers will not have any problem because of this."
"Since Rs1000 and Rs500 notes are allowed at rail premises, our booking counters are witnessing rush with people buying tickets using higher denominations. Even people are using Rs1000 notes for buying a platform ticket which is just Rs10," said Prabhu.
Besides allowing Rs500 and Rs1000 notes at ticket counters, Prabhu said catering establishments at rail premises have also been told to accept the higher denominations from the customers.
Railway Board Member (Traffic) Mohd Jamshed said: "Despite banks being closed today, we are in talks with them (banking authorities) to get rupee notes of lower denominations like Rs10, Rs50 and Rs100 to manage our booking counters."
Railways and Airports have been permitted to receive the higher denomination notes till November 11.