LAHORE – All vehicles without M-tag will be barred from entering the motorway from December 7 as the Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the National Highways & Motorway Police to take steps to cut pollution at the toll plaza.
The development came after Justice Shahid Karim of LHC issued a detailed judgment on petitions about curbing smog, pollution, and groundwater depletion.
The court observed that emergency measures need to be taken by the authorities prior to the deadline after which the condition shall be mandatorily enforced on M2 as well as other motorways converging on the Ravi Toll Plaza.
M-Tag is now mandatory on motorways. pic.twitter.com/O7M5Co07fU
— National Highways & Motorway Police (NHMP) (@NHMPofficial) December 4, 2021
The detailed judgment cited Punjab Disaster Management Authority officials who stated that traffic congestion at the toll plaza was a big contributor to the worsening air pollution due to the emission of CO2 from idling engines.
The detailed order of LHC said ‘a period of one week is given to both the motorway police as well as National Highway Authority to ensure that necessary steps are taken not only to publicly advertise this aspect to all motorists and secondly to make arrangement for a greater number of booths to be set up to enable the motorists to purchase the balance for their M-tag’.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) around the Ravi M2 toll plaza was alarming high, PDMA officials told the court and they also pointed that NH&MP should not permit any vehicle to enter the motorway without having balance in the M-Tag.
What is M-Tag?
M-Tag is a pre-paid Radio Frequency Identification that is installed at the top right corner of the front windscreen of a vehicle. There are scanners installed on the motorways’ toll plazas to scan the passing through vehicles.
These mounted scanners read M-tags on the vehicles as they pass through them and the applicable tax will be deducted automatically.
