Talking about toll fee being charged on roads which are not in proper condition, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, while speaking at a global workshop on satellite-based tolling, said that the highway agencies should not collect toll fee from people if the roads are not in good condition.
“If you don’t provide good quality service, you should not charge toll…We are in a hurry to start tolling to collect user fees and protect our interest,” he said.
He further said that the agencies should charge the fee for best quality road, adding that charging toll for roads filled with potholes will invite backlash from people.
Satellite-based tolling in India
The satellite-based tolling system is set to be brought in for over 5,000 kilometre in the financial year 2024-25. Initially, the NHAI plans to include the GNSS-based (Global Navigation Satellite System) Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system within the existing FASTag ecosystem. At first, a hybrid model will be employed where both (Radio Frequency Identification) RFID-based ETC and GNSS-based ETC will operate simultaneously.
The NHAI plans to initially implement this on commercial vehicles, followed by private vehicles, addressing scalability and privacy concerns. The highway authority has also suggested incorporating driver behavior analysis and back-end data analysis to detect fraud.
“With GNSS, the payment modes might be converted from prepaid to postpaid. Banks and financial institutions might be able to provide faster credits based on travel plans,” NHAI has recommended.
(With PTI inputs)