MCDs’ cash shortage delays RFID lanes at city border toll points
Delhi has 124 border entry points of which only 13 has RFID tag system. Hand-held devices are used at other points to collect toll tax and ECC.
A crippling financial crisis in the municipal corporations has delayed the second phase of a project to install radio frequency ID (RFID) compliant lane system for collecting toll tax at Delhi’s borders in order to ease congestion and stop old, polluting vehicles from entering Delhi.
The Supreme Court ordered SDMC to install RFID tag system at border points to collect toll and environment compensation cess (ECC). In the first phase, the civic body installed RFID system at 13 border points in January 2019. The civic body was expected to equip 10 additional border entry points of the capital with boom barriers and RFID infrastructure by January 2021.
A senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation official said the expansion will require at least ₹11-12 crore, and the civic body has no funds for the project. “The phase-1 of the project was implemented using Rs120 crore collected as environment compensation charges (ECC), on the directions of the Supreme Court and Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA). The Commission For Air Quality Management directed to implement the second phase of the project, but there is no clarity on funding” an SDMC official said asking not to be named.
Delhi has 124 border entry points of which only 13 has RFID tag system. Hand-held devices are used at other points to collect toll tax and ECC.
On August 14, 2020, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation -- the nodal agency to implement RFID project -- announced that all toll plazas will get hand held devices to read RFID chips by November 2020, and proper tag infrastructure will be installed at ten additional border points by January 2021.
SDMC commissioner Gyanesh Bharti, in his budget speech on Tuesday, said 111 border entry points have hand held devices for toll collection, and a central control room has been set up in Moti Nagar to all major entry points. “The control room detects the vehicles which attempt to bypass the system without paying toll tax and ECC,” he added.