Toll men have a new worry.

Toll plazas across the state may be in for an even more nerve-racking time when they restart toll collection from Friday midnight, for now, commuters could well hand over the new Rs 2,000 notes at the counters instead of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 that were demonetized on Tuesday midnight.

The rush to get change for the demonetized notes between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning was such that the government had announced a complete toll waiver on all state roads till the intervening midnight of November 11 and 12.

As several banks have run out of Rs 100 notes, officials at the toll plazas of Vashi, Dahisar, Mulund and Mumbai-Pune Expressway told TOI they are in urgent need of smaller denomination banknotes.

"Though a major chunk of the weekend traffic will head out of the city on Friday itself to take advantage of a toll-free ride, a sizable number will do so on Saturday. We think currency distribution will only stabilise by Monday evening," said a senior official.

A senior toll manager for five toll posts of Vashi, Airoli, Mulund, LBS, and Dahisar on the city's fringes warned of traffic pileup and chaos on Saturday, Sunday and Monday if Rs 10, Rs 50 and Rs 100 banknotes are not made amply available to toll staffers as well as commuters through banks and ATMs. They hope reopening of ATMs on Friday will ease the situation. On Wednesday morning, motorists had thronged toll nakas to get change for their Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Courtesy:- Times of India.