Govt plans seamless travel within Golden Triangle

The Government will launch a pilot project from December 1 on seamless travel on the Golden Triangle tourist circuit (Delhi-Jaipur-Agra) as part of its efforts to improve connectivity between mega tourist destinations and circuits.

Under the project, each state that lies on the circuit will collect tax on vehicles on behalf of the other three states. The states are Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The decision on this was taken at a meeting here yesterday presided over by Mr Brahm Dutt, Secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

It is expected to prevent harassment and undue delays faced by commercial tour operators operating on the circuit.

According to an official press release, the tax would be collected a day or two in advance. A formatted sticker, designed by the Ministry of Tourism, would be issued to the vehicles indicating the period for which the permit is valid.

The scheme will be valid only for the tour operators authorised by the Ministry of Tourism. Those found misusing the permit would be de-registered by the Ministry of Tourism, the release said.

The meeting also decided that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) would identify 500 sites for providing wayside amenities to travellers on its completed four/six lane sections.

These amenities will be developed on an approximate area of about 20,000 sq m (two hectares) on land to given on lease to the entrepreneur for a period of 15 years. The period can be extended to a maximum of 30 years. The land will be given at points every 50 km on the highways.

The amenities will include parking lots, snack bars, restaurants, toilets, rest rooms for short stay, first aid, telephone booths, petrol pumps, minor repair shops (optional), kiosks for sale of sundry items, landscaping and space for spreading awareness about various welfare programmes of the Government, the release said.

It said the NHAI had so far lined lease agreements with two petroleum companies for establishing, operating and maintaining such amenities.

One of them is with Reliance Industries Limited for two locations on the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway in Gujarat, which have become operational.

The other is with Hindustan Petroleum for eight locations in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Of the eight, facilities at two locations on the Jaipur Bypass section of the National Highway (NH) 8 have been completed and become operational.

NNN