Vehicles On The Agra-Lucknow Expressway Get A Toll Free Pass As Employees Boycott Work

In an unprecedented development, thousands of vehicles passed the Fatehabad toll plaza of the Agra-Lucknow Expressway without paying a toll over the weekend, after employees boycotted work to protest a significantly reduced Diwali bonus, reports Dainik Bhaskar.

The protest began on Saturday night and continued for nearly 12 hours. Employees of the operating firm, Shri Sai & Datar Company, were protesting against a Diwali bonus of just Rs 1,100.

According to the striking workers, this accounted for a significant decrease over last year's bonus of Rs 5,000. Disgruntled by the measly bonus, employees at the toll plaza lifted the toll boom barriers, thus allowing vehicles to pass through the plaza uninterrupted.

More than 5,000 vehicles are estimated to have passed the toll plaza during the 12 hours of protest.

On Sunday morning, the protest ended at around 10 a.m. The Police were called to the scene but refused to take action against the labour dispute.

The standoff was resolved on the same morning after Krishna Jurali, the company's project manager, met with employees and offered them a 10% salary increase. This prompted the employees to stop the protest and return to work.

Jurali stated that the FASTag automatic scanning system was active during the boycott, but vehicles were moving too fast for the scanners to detect. He confirmed that all vehicles during the course of the boycott were able to pass the toll plaza for free.

This accounted for a significant blow for the company, considering a one-way toll for a car on the expressway is Rs 665.