DSC Limited, the expressway concessionaire company, along with the traffic police have decided to penalise nontagged vehicles entering tag users' lanes.

This is one big reason for traffic jams on this stretch and soon, the traffic police would start booking such offenders.

Rule-breakers would be slapped an on-the-spot penalty of Rs 400. Driving licences of those who fail to pay the penalty would be confiscated. They would have to appear in the court to pay the violation charges.

Despite the fact DSC Limited sold about 80,000 Smart Tags -- a nonstop tolling de vice that allows users to cross toll plaza without halting -- tagged vehicles get stuck in long queues even on non-stop lanes. DSC officials said nontagged vehicles often force their entry into tagged lanes despite being stopped by the traffic marshals.

"We held a number of meetings with the traffic police department. They have finally agreed to start issuing challans to motorists breaking rules. The police have asked us to begin informing people about this decision at least three weeks before the drive. We have put up sign boards and variable message signages within one km distance on both sides of the toll plaza on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway," said Sachin Sharma, the vice-president of Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway Tolling.

The traffic police would begin action on December 1. "It is a practice followed world-over on toll plazas where motorists getting into unauthorised lanes are penalised for disrupting traffic movement. In Gurgaon, the main culprits drifting into the tag lanes are the BPO cabs and the inter-state buses and trucks," Sharma said.

ACP (Traffic) S.S. Siwatch said the department was ready to cooperate with the DSC Ltd. for managing traffic movement on the expressway. "We have assured that all possible cooperation would be extended. We have already deployed about 40 traffic cops," he said.