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The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will start collecting tolls on highways through an electronic process, starting October 27. The scheme will be inaugurated by minister Nitin Gadkari.
The electronic toll collection (ETC) system has been installed at 55 toll plazas and their integration with Central Clearing House (CCH) operators is nearly complete, according to an official statement. A pilot project for interoperable ETC system of 10 toll plazas between Mumbai (Charoti) and Ahmedabad has been tested and a seamless ETC on this section is already operational.
The ministry has also issued orders to incorporate ETC lanes as a mandatory clause in the contracts awarded for all the highway projects in future. ETC clause will also be added in projects which are in the pipeline.
For implementation of electronic toll system, a new company – Indian Highways Management Company Ltd — has been constituted with National Highways Authority of India having 25 per cent of the equity, concessionaires with 50 per cent and financial institutions with 25 per cent.
The company will be responsible for the collection of toll through ETC system and manage the project strategically and legally. It will also provide services of central ETC system, which include toll transaction clearing house operations, help-desk support and setting up of call centres for incident management, etc.
Necessary amendments have been made in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, for installing Radio Frequency Identification tag on vehicles for ETC.
