Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government will introduce new technologies including GPS-based toll collection systems to replace the existing highway toll plazas in the country within the next 6 months.
The move is to decongest traffic and charge motorists for exact distance traveled on highways, the minister said.
The Minister said that the toll revenue of state-owned National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is currently Rs 40,000 crore and it will increase to Rs 1.40 lakh crore in 2-3 years. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is also running a pilot project of Automatic Number Plate Recognition System (Automatic Number Plate Reader Cameras) to enable automated toll collection without stopping vehicles.
During 2018-19, the average waiting time of vehicles at the toll plaza was 8 minutes. With the introduction of FASTags in 2020-21 and 2021-22, the average waiting time for vehicles has come down to 47 seconds. While there has been significant improvement in waiting times in some areas, particularly in urban centers, toll plazas still experience delays in passing vehicles during peak hours. This leads to constant conflicts and arguments at toll plazas.
