Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced that the existing toll collection system will be discontinued within a year and replaced by a fully electronic mechanism aimed at ensuring a seamless experience for motorists on highways.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, the minister said the new system has already been launched at 10 locations and will be extended nationwide within a year.
"This toll system will end. There will be no one to stop you in the name of toll. Within a year, an electronic toll collection will be implemented across the country," he said.
Gadkari said 4,500 highway projects worth Rs 10 lakh crore are currently underway across the country.
According to an official statement released recently, the National Payments Corporation of India has developed the National Electronic Toll Collection programme.
It is a unified and interoperable platform for electronic toll payments designed to streamline collections on highways.
FASTag, based on Radio Frequency Identification technology and fixed to a vehicle’s windscreen, forms the core of this system and enables automatic debit of toll charges from a linked account without halting at plazas.
In a written reply, Gadkari informed the Lok Sabha that the government has decided to adopt innovative methods for user fee collection with the aim of reducing congestion, removing delays at fee plazas and improving the overall travel experience on national highways.
"In the effort to enhance toll operations and enable seamless movement of vehicles, the government has decided to implement the Multi-Lane Free Flow Electronic Toll Collection system, which facilitates barrier-less tolling using integrated technologies including Automatic Number Plate Recognition with AI analytics and RFID-based electronic toll collection (FASTag)," he said.
The minister said a request for proposal to implement FASTag plus ANPR and AI based barrier free fee collection on selected plazas has been invited or finalised according to Annexure IV.
The system may be extended to other plazas in a phased manner depending on the outcome and effectiveness of the projects where it is first deployed.
