Taking a serious note of complaints about lack of uniformity in operations and misbehaviour by the staff of toll plazas, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has issued a “Code of Conduct”, including a Dress Code and Courtesy Training for the Toll Plaza operators throughout the country.
A senior NHAI officials said that contractors/concessionaires will have to mandatorily comply with the policy guidelines and standards prescribed by NHAI. “A uniform dress code has also been issued, to be used through the country for the staff manning toll plazas,” said the official. From now onwards, every member of the toll plaza staff will wear a navy blue uniform with adequate features for safety and easy identification.
NHAI has also circulated a standardised format for display of toll rates/concessions/ exemptions in the bill boards that are required to be mandatorily put up by concessionaires/contractors for road users.
The concessionaires/contractors will ensure that the toll plaza personnel are given a minimum training of seven days to acquaint them with the do’s and don’ts prescribed by NHAI, behave with courtesy and help road users in case of any emergency. The personnel are to carry the certificate of training to be produced for verification during surprise checks by NHAI.
“Concessionaires/ contractors must maintain a register of the plaza staff including details of their pre-job training. The user fee (Toll) receipts will be issued in the standard prescribed template bearing details of the concessionaire/contractor, toll plaza location, other necessary helpline contacts,” said the official.
The road making authority has also issued specific instructions for all toll plazas to be adequately illuminated, displaying standardized boards with the name of user fee collection contractor, name of toll plaza, user fee rates, etc. clearly visible from prescribed distance.