Representatives of Federation of OMR Residents Association (FOMRRA) are now batting for systems that would make the time spent at the toll plazas on Old Mahalipuram Road and connecting roads “contactless”, thereby mitigating the risk of transmission of the Corona virus.
In a representation they have made to the Chief Minister, they have said that they are “very concerned about the spread of the virus at the Toll plazas of OMR — something that affects our lives every day”.
The representation has presented situations where “the TNRDC staff manning the toll booths and us residents and other motorists who interact with them” are exposed to this risk.
It also makes recommendations on how to combat this problem.
LRP scanning
“In most cases, motorists with Local Resident Pass (LRP) hand over the card to the toll booth staff, who read the same internally or on scanning machines and return the same.
This practice heightens the risk of the virus being transmitted between multiple users,” says the FOMRRA representation.
The representation says that TNRDC should ensure that “the staff don’t handle the LRP cards, and instead allow motorists to scan the same on the readers, or better still, only show them to the TNRDC staff from inside the vehicle. This practice will surely lessen the risk of the virus being transmitted between the staff and motorists.”
More ‘contact-lessness’
As “currency, credit cards and coins in circulation may be contaminated with the virus that causes COVID-19, we urge that the ongoing initiative to adopt RFID/FasTags be speeded up, treating this COVID 19 situation as a critical emergency,” the representation says.
“We suggest that the toll gates be opened to enable free flow of traffic without collection of toll till such time that these precautions are implemented to avoid further spread of the virus.”
The representation states that “the above suggestions have been made in public interest and to lessen the spread of the virus in our community. We hope you will consider the same, make immediate changes in process to be followed and instruct TNRDC accordingly.”
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