THE TOLL OF TOLLS

Five years after overhauling India’s highway toll collection with FASTags, the Modi government is gearing up for its next ambitious move: a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based tolling system.

- Avishek G. Dastidar

It aims to eliminate manned toll booths altogether, promising a seamless and automated tolling experience for commuters and long-haul drivers. The GNSS-based technology will track vehicles via satellites and levy charges based on the exact distance travelled. This ensures users pay only for the portion of the highway they use. The elimination of manned booths will allow vehicles to enter and exit highways seamlessly and improve fuel efficiency.

The system will use a network of satellites that transmit signals to a GNSS receiver in the vehicle, thus calculating the vehicle’s exact location, speed and direction by triangulating signals from multiple satellites. This way, the system can precisely determine how far motorists have travelled on a toll road and charge them accordingly. To use the new system, drivers must register their vehicles and link their bank accounts. Additionally, existing FASTags will need to be linked to the new GPS-based tolling system. To ensure communication between vehicles and satellites, telecom towers will be installed along highways.

The government told Parliament during the ongoing Budget session that a pilot study of the system has been done on the Bengaluru-Mysore section of NH-275 in Karnataka and the Panipat-Hisar section of NH-709 in Haryana. The plan is to roll this out on 5,000 km of highways to begin with, including between Delhi and Mumbai. This week, 15 players, including International highway toll solutions companies, have submitted their expressions of interest to make the toll charger software. The ministry has formed an apex committee to oversee this.