The Union Government will soon start a pilot project of electronic toll collection (ETC) using the radio-frequency identification device (RFID) on National Highway 1 between Delhi and Amritsar.
The pilot project is taken up before the pan-India launch of the unified ETC across national highways maintained by the National Highways Authority of India, said C. Kandasamy, Director-General (Road Development) and Special Secretary to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, here on Thursday. The ETC, if found successful and is embraced by most of the vehicle users, is bound to ease long queues at toll plazas across national highways in the country.
Addressing a seminar on “Pilot Projects – Special Emphasis on Green Field Expressway in Karnataka” organised by Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Kandasamy said that the Ministry has finalised the standardisation of technology, implementation strategy, institutional framework and overseeing implementation. A committee headed by UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani had recommended the use of RFID, he said and added that an RFID tag is cheap and will cost just Rs. 16.
Electronic purse
The RFID self-adhesive tag, a pre-loaded electronic purse, will be fixed on the windshield of the vehicle to be read by the transceivers at toll plazas. While the toll fee will be automatically deducted from the users' account, the user will have a hassle-free drive on the highway. Four banks have come forward to provide back-end banking support for the system, Mr. Kandasamy said.
Once the pilot project becomes successful, it will be implemented across the country. All RFID tags will be be read by transceivers at all toll plazas enabling the user to traverse across the country with a single RFID tag without waste of time, Mr. Kandasamy said.
Airport
Responding to queries, Mr. Kandasamy said toll collection on National Highway 7 (Bellary Road) leading to the international airport cannot be postponed as the contractor has to take up further improvement works.
NHAI Project Director R.K. Gupta told presspersons here that the pre-loaded electronic purse (onboard unit) toll facility on the Electronic City elevated expressway had very few takers. Introducing it at Bellary Road toll plaza might face a similar fate, even though NHAI was open to talks with taxi operators, he said.
FKCCI president J.R. Bangera, Infrastructure Committee chairman Prakash Mandoth, FKCCI senior vice-president K. Shiva Shanmugam, FKCCI vice-president R. Shivakumar, and an expert from Japan International Cooperation Agency Masahiro Shirato were present.
