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NEW DELHI: Facing public ire over congestion on National Highways (NHs) at Delhi’s entry points, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has approached Supreme Court seeking “forthwith” removal of nine MCD toll collection points at borders. The highways authority was reportedly left with no option but to approach the court as its repeated pleas to the municipal corporation to address the growing problem bore no result.TOI has learnt that NHAI filed the application this week, months after Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari asked the MCD and Delhi govt to find a solution to the congestion at borders, which he had called a “nuisance” for commuters. The authority has asked for the immediate removal of four permanent and five temporary toll collection points in order to ensure safe and convenient movement of vehicles.It has submitted that nine major highway works, totalling 546 km in length, have been built in the past 10 years, but the full benefits of this infrastructure were not being availed due to continued erection and operation of toll collection points by the municipal corporation. With vehicles having to face halts and extended waiting periods, the intended reduction in congestion has not happened; instead, vehicular pollution has gone up.The NHAI also said that it has repeatedly highlighted how manual, bottleneck-prone toll and Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) collection methods are contrary to the purpose of expressways and come in the way of substantial investments in highway development yielding dividends. It highlighted that the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) has been built in compliance with the SC order of Feb 2005, encircling Delhi to divert non-destined traffic. Similarly, the Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE) has been built by the Haryana govt to serve as regional bypasses. The expressways are used by a large number of vehicles, which would otherwise have congested Delhi’s inner roads.In its submission, sources said, NHAI also said that as per a road transport ministry’s policy of 2001, erection of check barriers on NHs are not permitted except where the ministry’s prior approval has been obtained, and only in emergency cases can temporary barriers be erected for maintenance of law and order or to deal with natural calamities. In cases where revenue is to be raised by local authorities, separate laybys should be provided outside NH Right-of-Way for parking of vehicles that need to pay any toll or tax.The authority mentioned how it has consistently taken up the issue of congestion at the four permanent toll collection points, only for the MCD to fail to put things in order. For example, at the Rajokari-Sarhol border on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, the municipal body has even failed to comply with an order of the Delhi high court. This toll collection point caters to an astounding 56,000 commercial vehicles per day, which translates into peak hour traffic of 6,700 vehicles per hour.The NHAI mentioned that the municipal body has failed to adhere to the directive of the Delhi high court to collect toll strictly on the six designated lanes on the extreme left side of Rajokari (towards Delhi). In 2018, NHAI had slapped a legal notice on MCD, raising objections to the continued collection of tolls, in violation of safety norms and traffic management principles.It said in its application that the municipal body has failed to remove the plaza and depends on its personnel flagging off high-speed vehicles, causing vehicles to abruptly switch lanes and come to a halt. Seven out of 16 lanes on the Delhi entry side of NH-48 are being used by MCD for toll collection.