Toll tag test

The highway ministry’s ambitious project of introducing a common smart tag for all toll plazas across the country will be tried out on the NH-1’s Delhi-Chandigarh stretch. By May-end, the new technology will be tested on a pilot basis before other tolled stretches are included in the project. The government aims to introduce a singe radio frequency identification (RFID) smart tag that can be used at all toll plazas by end-2013. At a meeting held on Friday, under the chairmanship of highways minister C P Joshi, it was decided that the first project — on the 250-km stretch in NH1 — needs to be expedited. Three toll operators own different stretches of the corridor, and the NHAI will also test the technology’s inter-operability. Sources said the facility would be first installed at the toll plaza in Panipat. A major private banker has offered free service to manage the collection and disbursal of the toll charge among all the three operators — GMR, Soma-Isolux and L&T. The bank will provide facilities for recharging the tags at commuters’ convenience. The RFID tag promises to improve vehicle clearance at toll plazas since the vehicle users don’t have to stop and pay cash at counters. The censors placed at toll gates will read the tag from a certain distance and bamboo barrier will go up automatically. The new tags will come cheaper and are likely to shift most of the cash lane users to tag users, reducing congestion and help plug revenue leakage.