All the toll booths on highways may soon be phased out as the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is planning to replace them with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras that will deduct tolls automatically. The idea is to ease congestion, said Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in an interview with the Indian Express.
Despite the FASTag, the electronic RFID-based toll collection system, being in place in India, congestion remains a big problem at toll plazas. While FASTag has achieved over 96 percent penetration with 5.56 crore FASTags issued to date, toll booths and plazas regularly face traffic snarls. The snarls occur because even if tolls are being processed faster, the presence of toll booths means that vehicles have to slow down and come to a stop.
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But with the use of ANPR cameras, the government may remove these centres altogether. Instead, ANPR cameras located at the entry and exit of toll roads will automatically capture the number plates of vehicles. These cameras will be connected to systems which will then automatically deduct the toll directly from bank accounts.
“Now, the plan is to remove toll plazas and put cameras, which will read these number plates and toll will be deducted from the account directly. We are also doing a pilot of this scheme,” Gadkari told the Indian Express.
These technologies could also allow the government to charge tolls from vehicles on a per kilometre use basis instead of flat rates.
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No official decision has been taken as the government is also considering the use of satellite-based GPS technologies to automatically deduct tolls. The government will take a decision within the next six months along with the passing of the appropriate supporting legislation for the change. Regardless of which technology is chosen, the future of national highways is one without toll booths.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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