GPS Based Toll Collection: During the last few years, there has been a big change in the method of toll collection. This change has come from Fastag, but now its era is also going to pass…
Nitin Gadkari on Toll Collection: You must have also seen Toll Plaza while traveling by road. At present, toll is paid by vehicles either through FASTag or in cash. Paying toll in cash has reduced considerably now. Soon the days of Fastag are going to end like cash, because the government is soon going to implement new technology (Toll Collection Technology) for toll collection.
New technology in six months
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told in a program on Friday that the government is considering new technology to replace the existing toll plaza. Any new toll collection technology including GPS-Based Toll Collection System will replace the existing toll plazas in the next six months. He said that the aim of the government is to reduce the traffic congestion and to charge the drivers exactly as much as they have traveled on the highways.
Toll collection will increase manifold
Union Minister Gadkari was addressing a program of industry organization CII. He said that at present NHAI is getting revenue of around Rs 40 thousand crore from toll collection. This collection of revenue can increase manifold in the next two-three years and the National Highways Authority of India’s earnings from toll can reach Rs 1.40 lakh crore.
Ongoing experiments on this technology
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already started work on testing new technology for toll collection. Right now such cameras have been installed for this, which are equipped with the ability to read automatic number plates. Vehicles do not need to stop in this. This technology is known as Automatic Number Plate Recognition System. Right now it is being tested experimentally.
Fastag brought this change
During the last few years, there has been a big change in the method of toll collection. During the year 2018-19, vehicles had to wait for an average of 8 minutes at the toll plaza. After implementing the Fastag system, the waiting time has come down considerably and it has come down to just 47 seconds from 2020-21 to 2021-22. However, people still take time at the toll plaza in peak hours in densely populated places.
Vehicles will not need to stop
Modern systems such as automatic number plate recognition systems or GPS-based toll collection systems do not require vehicles to stop for toll collection. Many countries in the world have adopted these techniques for toll collection. If they are implemented in India as well, then the method of toll collection can change completely in the coming times and FASTags can also become a thing of the past like cash transactions.
