Wednesday, August 24, 2022
By Manoj Kumawat
Government To Introduce New Toll Collection System
To offer the smooth movement of vehicles on toll plazas the Ministry of Road and Transport is soon going to remove toll plazas from all national highways. According to the new toll collection system, an automatic number plate reader camera will be used for collecting the toll. This camera will read the number plates of vehicles crossing the toll plaza and automatically deduct the required amount from the linked bank accounts of vehicle owners. Information regarding this was shared by the Minister For Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari. According to him, the government is conducting a pilot survey on this and also working on making legal amendments to implement the changes.
In the words of the honourable minister, “In 2019, we made a rule that cars will come with company-fitted number plates. So, the vehicles that have come in the last four years have different number plates. Now, the plan is to remove toll plazas and put cameras, which will read these number plates and toll will be deducted from the account directly. We are also doing a pilot of this scheme. However, there is one problem — there is no provision under the law to penalise the vehicle owner who skips the toll plaza and does not pay. We need to bring that provision under the law. We may bring in a provision for cars which do not have these number plates to get them installed within a certain period of time. We will need to bring in a Bill for this”.
The toll collection statistics revealed by the Ministry of Road And Transport, reveal that about 97% of the toll collection is collected through FASTags, while the remaining 3% of vehicles crossing toll plazas pay high charges for crossing the toll plaza. Although the use of FASTags has made the move on the toll plazas easier, still there are reports of congestion during peak hours. The introduction of the number plate reader camera is believed to reduce the traffic congestion on toll plazas.
However, success will depend on the implementation of the system. Commenting on the introduction of the Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) camera, an insider of the ministry said that the introduction of every technology requires the whole system to be foolproof without any chances of leakages. In his words, “The ANPR camera is accustomed to reading nine numbers of the number plate and, if there is anything beyond that – like something written on the number plates that we typically come across in most vehicles in the country — the camera will not read it”.
