A new toll collection system

12.03.2024

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Why in the  news?

Recently the Road Transport and Highways Minister said in Parliament that the government plans to implement a new highway toll collection system before the model code of conduct for the 2024 election kicks in.

Key Point

• The new toll collection system will be based on the global navigation satellite system.

What is the new proposed highway tolling system?

• The global navigation satellite system is a term which is used to refer to any satellite-based navigation system.
• An example of a GPS system is the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS).
• The mechanism of GPS uses a large constellation of satellites in order to provide more accurate location and navigation information to users globally.
• It’s been said that its implementation will involve an On-Board Unit (OBU), or a tracking device, fitted inside a vehicle whose location can be mapped using GAGAN which is the Indian satellite navigation system with an approximate accuracy of 10 meters.
• The coordinates of the entire length of the country’s national highways will have to be logged with the help of digital image processing, and software will be used to assign the toll rate on a particular highway, calculate the toll amount for a vehicle as per the distance travelled by it and then deduct the amount from a wallet linked to the OBU.
• The system will additionally have gantries, or arches mounted with CCTV cameras, at various points on a highway for the purposes of enforcement.
• These will capture an image of the vehicle’s high security registration plate and also cross verify if a road user is trying to trick the system by either removing the tracking device or is travelling without an OBU onboard.
• The officials from the Ministry further explained that the aim of the technology is to provide users the benefit of paying toll only for the actual distance travelled on a highway, or pay-as-you-use.
• The government also hopes that the new tolling system will eventually allow barrier-free movement.

What are some of the challenges that are involved?

• One of the major challenges posed by this technology is with respect to the collection of the toll amount.
• For example, what if a road user fails to clear his payment after completing a journey on a highway, for instance, if the digital wallet linked with the OBU is empty.
• Because there are no barriers involved which can stop a non-compliant vehicle, there are other issues such as when a vehicle travels on a highway without an OBU device linked or the OBU device is deliberately switched off in order to avoid payment or if a car’s OBU is installed on a truck to pay less toll.
• To overcome this challenge, Gantry-mounted Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR)-based systems for capturing violations have to be set up on highways across India.
• However currently there is no such infrastructure in the country today.
• Further, the success of an ANPR system also depends on the quality of the license plates, which are currently limited to a few cities and States.
• The government also has to amend the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules so as to provide for the recovery of unpaid toll, define offenses as well as require the necessity of an OBU in vehicles.

Will FASTags be discontinued?

• It is noted that the new tolling system will co-exist with the FASTag-based toll collection as the government has not yet taken a decision on whether OBUs will be made mandatory for all vehicles or only for new vehicles.
• The Union Minister of road and transport has been speaking about implementing satellite-based toll collection since 2020, even though radio frequency identification based FASTags for toll collection was rolled out from the year 2016 and made mandatory only from February 16, 2021.
• However as per the statements of the officials it has been noted that the global navigation satellite system involves lower operational cost as compared to FASTags due to absence of toll plazas and less number of entities in the toll collection process.

                                       Source:The Hindu