18.12.20

GPS could make NHs toll plaza free in 2 years

Toll plazas on NHs would be a thing of the past in the next 2-3 years with the National Highways Authority of India preparing to roll out GPS-based tolling across the network. This will allow people to travel non-stop as there will be no physical barrier, Union highways minister Nitin Gadkari said. Addressing a webinar at the ASSOCHAM Foundation Week Programme, the minister said this would enable deduction of the toll charge based on the movement of vehicles directly from the bank accounts of the users. Gadkari said this would make India a “toll-booth free” nation in the next two years. Sources said initially, this will be the default mode of toll collection for all commercial vehicles as all commercial passenger vehicles registered after January 2019 have got the vehicle tracking systems embedded in them. This can be easily installed in all other commercial vehicles including the older ones. In the second phase, private vehicles can also be brought under this ambit.

An NHAI official said this “free flow satellite-based electronic toll collection system” using GPS technology will also ensure that the users pay only for the distance covered.

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