Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said in an event of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) that at present this is a pilot project. The purpose of this project is to reduce traffic at toll plazas.
If you get more traffic at the toll plaza, then it will not last long. Because the government is working on a project from which toll will be charged from the number plate of the vehicle itself. This will get rid of heavy traffic jams at toll plazas. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said in an event of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) that at present this is a pilot project. The purpose of this project is to reduce traffic at toll plazas. He said that the Ministry of Road and Transport is conducting a pilot project in which toll collection will be done through Automatic Number Plate Recognition System. This will help in toll collection without stopping the vehicles.
Average waiting time at toll plaza is only 47 seconds
He further said that there will be two less through this project. First that traffic jams will have to be reduced and second that the amount of vehicles used will have to be paid. The average waiting time of trains at toll plazas during 2018-19 was 8 minutes. But during 2020-21 and 2021-22, the average waiting time has come down to just 47 seconds due to FASTag. However, the average waiting time at peak times at toll plazas, select locations and other toll plazas near cities is still high, which work is going on to reduce it. The Union Minister informed that Advance Traffic Management System (ATMS) has been installed on the new National Highway and National Highway having more than 4 lanes. Along with this, by 2024, there is a target to install an Intelligence Traffic System (ITS) on the national highway at a level of 15,000 km.
‘The concept of toll plaza will be over’
Last month, Nitin Gadkari said that it is looking at two options for toll collection. First, the car will have GPS and implement a satellite based toll system, from which toll charges will be collected directly from the passenger’s bank account and secondly, the toll collection will be charged through the number plate. He had said that the process of launching the GPS based system is going on. There are many technologies available in India regarding number plates as well. No decision has been taken yet on choosing the technology. The Union Minister said that if number plate based technology comes, then the concept of toll plaza is almost over. This will give a lot of relief to the drivers.
