You must have known that when your car runs on the National Highway, you have to deduct toll tax, but you will be happy to know that now you will not see any toll on the roads, let’s know in the news the new plan of the government .
You must have paid the toll tax but have you ever thought that your car is galloping on the National Highway. If you do not have to stop to pay toll tax, then you have understood it right.
You will not get relief from toll tax, but you will definitely get relief from the trouble of staying at toll plazas. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is soon going to abolish all toll plazas and fast tags.
A pilot project is underway to implement this plan. According to Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, the government is going ahead with a plan to remove toll plazas on the national highways of India. After the implementation of this scheme, the toll money will be deducted from their bank account along with the photo being clicked from the camera of the number plate of the vehicles.
Preparation was going on since the year 2019
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said, “In 2019, we made a rule that cars will come with company-fitted number plates. So the vehicles that have arrived in the last four years have different number plates.” “Now there is a plan to remove toll plazas and install cameras, which will read these number plates and toll will be deducted directly from the bank account,” he said.
Union Transport Minister Gadkari said, “We are also piloting this scheme. However, there is a problem that under the law, the vehicle owner who leaves the toll plaza and does not pay the toll will be punished.” There is no provision of . Will be asked to put a number plate inside. We will have to bring a bill for this.”
He also informed that now toll plazas are being replaced by automatic number plate reader cameras, which will read vehicle number plates and automatically deduct toll from the linked bank accounts of vehicle owners. Said that a pilot of this scheme is going on and legal amendments are also being made to facilitate this change. The information shared by the Union Transport Minister during the 3rd edition of the Road and Highways Summit ‘Accelerating the Road Infrastructure: New India @ 75’ at FICCI Federation House in New Delhi on August 23, 2022 .
97 toll tax collection due to fast tag
At present, about 97 percent of the total toll collection of about Rs 40,000 crore is done through FASTags. The remaining 3% pay more than the normal toll rates due to non-use of FASTag. It takes approximately 47 seconds per vehicle to cross a toll plaza with FASTag.
If we look at the government data, every hour 112 vehicles pass through the manual toll collection lane. Whereas in comparison, more than 260 vehicles move through the electronic toll collection lane by paying toll every hour.
But ever since the use of FASTag started in the toll world, it has made traffic easier at toll plazas across the country. But even after this, there is congestion at the toll plaza. The reason for this is that there are many toll gates that require authentication or verification of the driver to cross.
Problems in using fast tag
There are some issues with FASTag which has been made mandatory from February 16, 2021. For example, people with low balance using these tags, when they come to Fee Plaza Lane, then they take more time to pass through there. Along with this comes the problem of internet connectivity at far-flung toll plazas. Because of this Plaza Server is not able to update the Low Balance FASTag to Active FASTag on time. Apart from this, problems like radio frequency identification (RFID) reader and tag wear and tear, as well as people using FASTag use it incorrectly, problems come with FASTag.
Number plate reader will be facility
This pilot project of the Union Transport Ministry will speed up and facilitate this work along with reducing the congestion at toll plazas. Here pilot project means to start a work on a small scale and know its feasibility before implementing it on a large scale. The use of Automatic Number Plate Reader-ANPR cameras or Number Plate Reader Cameras is expected to reduce the congestion at toll plazas further. But a lot will depend on the implementation of the system.
According to an industry insider who does not wish to reveal his identity, this system should be foolproof, that is, do the right thing. Let there be no shortage of it. For this, more than one technology will be needed. He said, “ANPR camera is accustomed to read 9 numbers of number plates and if anything more than that i.e. if there is anything else written on the number plate, then the camera will not read it. Which we usually do on the number plates of most of the vehicles in the country. I see.”
He said that tests have shown that the camera is unable to read about 10 percent written on the number plates. Because on those number plates there is text other than 9 words and numbers. He says that such systems can be implemented with new projects with FASTag and GPS toll. “In a country like India, we will need more than one system to ensure minimum revenue loss,” he said.
