Focusing on highway commuter facilities at Way Side Amenities

In the last couple of years, due to great push of Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, highways especially greenfield access-controlled expressways such as Delhi-Mumbai Expressways (DME), Amritsar-Bhatinda-Jamnagar (ABJ) & Trans-Haryana etc. have come into existence. Many existing highways have also been upgraded from 2/4 lanes to 4/6 lanes.

With more new highways and up-gradation of existing highways, both passenger and commercial vehicular movement has boomed, thereby increasing the need for provision of customer-oriented stop-over facilities backed with comfortable services. “Being part of the Government’s ambitious plan under Bharatmala Project, NHAI has an ambitious plan to develop and operationalize 700+ WSAs along these highways within next 2-3 years” says B. Upadhyaya, Chief General Manager (RS-Highway-NE), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

The major facilities in WSA are Fuel & Gas station, clean toilets, drinking water, CCTV monitored secured parking area, electric vehicle charging facility, food courts, village haat, retail shops, trauma centres, vehicle service, children play area, helipad, motels, dhaba, dormitory, bathing facilities, barber shop, hauda, self-cooking facilities & kirana stores for drivers, etc.

IOCL has been awarded 35 WSA sites so far and evolved as a major partner in developing and operationalizing WSAs pan India. IOCL has been awarded to operate 14 large WSAs along the most prestigious Delhi-Mumbai expressway and few of them have also started operating.

WSAs are being developed under IOCL brand name of “Swagat” conveying message as ‘Recharge, Refuel and Refresh’. With a tagline of ‘Swagat Jahan Aaram Wahan’, it is our endeavor to make truckers’ journey pleasant and comfortable. On this mission, IOCL has developed 140+ large format Swagat sites pan India which include a few WSA sites that have been developed recently and has an ambitious plan to develop 500+ Swagat sites within 3-5 years.