Process to change land use for new Ghazipur toll starts

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has initiated the process to change the land use of a plot of land adjacent to the existing Ghazipur toll plaza on the Delhi-Meerut expressway, officials aware of the matter said. Once this process is complete, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will use this land to develop a new five-lane toll plaza at the border.

Thousands of vehicles enter Delhi through the existing Ghazipur toll plaza every day, but the two-lane toll plaza is not equipped to handle a large traffic volume, and the spot often witnesses sprawling jams, especially during the morning and evening peak hours, and after 10pm, when trucks are allowed to enter the Capital. They said the five-lane toll plaza will help ease these traffic woes.

On Monday, DDA issued a gazette notification, seeking public feedback on changing the land use of a 7,205 sqm land pocket abutting the current toll plaza. The notification, undersigned by commissioner cum secretary D Sarkar, said the Centre proposes to make changes to the Master Plan for Delhi -2021 (Zonal Development Plan of Zone E) by changing the current land use from commercial (warehousing) and recreational use to transportation (toll plaza).

“Any person having any objection or suggestion to the proposed modification may send the objection in writing to the Commissioner-cum-Secretary or via email to mpd2021.public@dda.org.in within a period of 30 days,” the notification says.

Once the public feedback phase is over, DDA is expected to finalise the conditions and charges for transferring the land pocket. An MCD official said, “We have asked the DDA to hand over the portion of vacant land abutting these two booths, which will help resolve the problems faced by commuters and help in segregating the commercial traffic.”

Ratish Dhar, who travels from Ghaziabad to Lajpat Nagar for work and crosses the Ghazipur border daily, said non-commercial vehicles are not supposed to pay toll to enter Delhi but get caught in traffic snarls as vehicles merging from the Raj Nagar Extension side do not get a clear passage.

Anuj Chawla, a resident of Ghaziabad, said, “Toll workers keep stopping cab drivers on the middle lane, while regular commuters face delays due to this.”