India to have barrier-free electronic toll collection on highways within a year: Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said India will implement a barrier-free, electronic toll collection system nationwide within a year. Rolled out at 10 locations, the FASTag and AI-based system aims to reduce congestion and enhance motorist experience on highways

New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the current system of toll collection will come to an end within a year, replaced by an electronic system that will ensure a seamless experience for motorists on highways.

The new system has been rolled out in 10 places and will be extended across the country within a year, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways said in the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

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“This toll system will end. There will be no one to stop you in the name of toll. Within a year, an electronic toll collection will be implemented across the country,” he said.

Gadkari also informed the House that currently, 4,500 highway projects worth Rs 10 lakh crore are ongoing across the country. According to an official statement released recently, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has developed the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme — a unified, interoperable platform for electronic toll payments — to streamline toll collection across India’s highways.

At the core of NETC is FASTag, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-based device affixed to a vehicle’s windscreen. It allows automatic toll payments from the user’s linked account without stopping at the plaza.

Gadkari, in a written reply to a question, informed the Lok Sabha that the government has also decided to introduce innovative methods for user fee collection to reduce congestion, eliminate delays at fee plazas, and improve overall user experience on national highways.

“In the effort to enhance toll operations and enable seamless movement of vehicles, the government has decided to implement the Multi-Lane Free Flow Electronic Toll Collection system, which facilitates barrier-less tolling using integrated technologies including Automatic Number Plate Recognition with AI analytics and RFID-based electronic toll collection (FASTag),” he said.

According to the Minister, a request for proposal to implement FASTag+ANPR/AI barrier-free user fee collection system on the selected fee plazas has been invited/finalised as per Annexure-IV, with the possibility of implementing it on other fee plazas in a phased manner, depending upon the outcomes and efficacy of the implementation on these projects.