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From this Friday, one can travel on the Delhi-Mumbai highway without stopping at any toll plaza, with the government launching electronic toll collection (ETC).
When vehicles pass through any of the 18 toll plazas on the Delhi-Mumbai highway, an antenna on the plazas will detect the RFID (radio frequency identification) tags installed on the vehicles. The data will then be sent to a server and, subsequently, the toll will be automatically deducted from the vehicle/tag owner's bank account.
Currently, vehicles passing through toll plazas have to stop and pay a fee, which often leads to traffic congestion. Though some operators offer the facility of tag lanes, such tags can only be used at designated points. Also, these can only be bought at toll plazas.
Now, a dedicated lane, under the brand name FASTag, will be available at every toll plaza. The dedicated ETC lanes will also have distinct colour coding. The government plans to make the service available at all 350 toll plazas across national highways by the end of this year.
The aim is to streamline toll collection on national highways, address malpractices in the process and avoid traffic jams resulting from toll collection, say officials in the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. Besides, it is expected issues of overcharging and undercharging, as well as complaints against under-reporting/non-reporting of toll collection, will also be addressed.
Every year, an estimated Rs 6,000 crore is collected from toll plazas on national highways.
A new website, www.nhtis.org, will offer all toll-related information, including the number of toll plazas between specific routes, toll fees and toll notifications on the basis of which fees are charged. One will be able to calculate the toll she/he has to pay while travelling on national highways by various modes - car, van, taxi, bus, truck, etc.
To manage the process of ETC, the government has set up Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL), with equity participation from the National Highways Authority of India (25 per cent), concessionaires (50 per cent) and financial institutions (25 per cent). IHMCL has tied up with Axis Bank and ICICI Bank for clearing house services and offering RFID tags to users through franchises/agents and at points of sales near toll plazas.
The ministry has also made necessary amendments in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, for installation RFID tags on vehicles.
The project was conceptualised by the United Progressive Alliance government, which had constituted a committee on using ETC technology on national highways under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani, former chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India.
The committee had examined the technologies available for ETC and recommended the most suitable one. Keeping in mind user convenience, the rate of acceptance and ease of implementation, passive RFID (based on EPC, Gen2, ISO 18000-6C Standards for ETC technology) was adopted, said ministry officials.
So far, ETC technology has been installed at 55 toll plazas. And, their integration with Central Clearing House operators on the Delhi-Mumbai route via Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, has almost been completed.
A pilot project for an interoperable ETC system on 10 toll plazas between Mumbai (Charoti) and Ahmedabad has also been tested and seamless ETC on this section is underway.
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