Highways Sans Toll Plazas

FUTURE TOLL COLLECTION WILL BE BASED ON GLOBAL POSITIONING TECHNOLOGY. A PILOT PROJECT IS ALREADY ON WITH 500 VEHICLES

- ASHUTOSH KUMAR

Beginning next year, vehicles will no longer need to stop at toll plazas to make payments. Instead, toll collection will be based on global positioning technology, Minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said during the question hour in the Lok Sabha in mid-March. “Toll plaza free does not mean no toll fee. Toll charges will instead be collected through the global positioning technology. A camera will record the vehicle details at the point of entry to the toll section as well as exit from the toll section. The user will be charged only for the segment of the toll road used. We will implement this within the next one year,” Gadkari had said.

The move aims to ensure a fully seamless, toll barrier-free movement for vehicles, enhanced audit control, and centralised user accounts for the toll operator, and pilferage free and transparent toll transactions, along with adherence to green norms by curtailing the idling fuel wastage.

FASTag-ing Highways

The announcement comes close on the heels of the government making toll collection mandatory through radio frequency identification (RFID) technology-based fastag from February 16, 2021. Till March, 93 per cent of the vehicles had adopted the fastag method of toll collection. The technology was rolled out in April 2016.