IT Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec 18:
The Government has finalised GPS-based (Global Positioning System) technology toll collection to ensure seamless movement of vehicles across the country, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.
Addressing the ASSOCHAM Foundation Week Programme, he shared his perspective on the theme ‘National Infrastructure Pipeline critical for economic revival across sectors,’ and explained that the toll amount will be deducted directly from the bank account based on the movement of vehicles. While now all commercial vehicles are coming with vehicle tracking systems, the Government will come up with some plan to install GPS technology in old vehicles, he said.
The Minister expressed hope that the toll collections may reach Rs 34,000 crore by ensuing March. By using GPS technology for toll collection, the toll income in next five years will be Rs 1,34,000 crore, he added.
The Minister said that industrial development is key to employment generation and poverty eradication in India, however at present, industry is India is centralised in urban areas as such decentralisation of industry is imperative to boost growth rate as growing urbanisation is causing grave problems in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and others. He also impressed upon the need to promote public-private investment in infrastructure development. He assured Government’s support in projects that are not economically viable.
The use of technology will mean that there won’t be leakages in collection of the levy & the money transfer can happen in a transparent manner. To enable seamless toll collection at the plazas, the government introduced RFID (radio frequency identification) tags.
According to an official statement by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), RFID-enabled FASTags contribute nearly three-fourth of the total toll collection (till November). The daily collection stood at Rs 92 crore compared to Rs 70 crore a year ago. The Govt rolled out FASTag-based electronic toll collection mechanism from 15 December, 2019, across all toll plazas of the NHAI. There are 62 toll plazas on national highways.
