Deadline for RFID tags on commercial vehicles set by South Delhi civic body ends

The SDMC is the nodal implementing agency for the RFID project for all municipal bodies in Delhi, under directions from the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA)

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) declared on Friday that no more deadline extensions will be given to owners of commercial vehicles such as trucks and taxis who enter the borders of Delhi without Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on their vehicles.

Taxis and drivers line up to receive Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, at NH-24, Ghazipur, in New Delhi, on Friday, August 16, 2019. Without RFID, no commercial vehicle will be allowed entry in Delhi. This system will be implemented from tonight. RFID tags have been arranged at six locations on the state borders. (Sonu Mehta / Hindustan Times)

“From 12am on Friday, every vehicle that reaches Delhi’s 13 main toll points without the tag will have to pay twice the amount of municipal toll tax and Environment Compensation Charge (ECC), up till a week. It will become four times in the second week and six times in the third,” additional commissioner of the SDMC Randhir Sahay said.

The toll points are Kundli, Rajokri, Tikri, Aya Nagar, Kalindi Kunj, Kapashera, Shahdara (Main), Shahdara (Flyover), Ghazipur (Main), Ghazipur (Old), DND Flyway, Badarpur-Faridabad (Main) and Badarpur-Faridabad (Flyover).

The SDMC is the nodal implementing agency for the RFID project for all municipal bodies in Delhi, under directions from the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA)

SDMC officers said that the number of commercial vehicle owners who purchased the RFID tag has gone up to 1.63 lakh as of 12pm on August 23. “We have deployed at least 200 officers at the city’s 13 toll points and even highways in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Sonepat (Haryana) to sell the tags,” a senior engineer with the municipality said.

“We are anticipating a few initial problems such as scuffles or traffic jams at the toll points, but we will keep improving the system, and I want to assure everyone that this system is here to stay,” Sunita Narain, a member of EPCA, said.

The SDMC also inaugurated its centralised monitoring control room for all the toll points at Moti Bagh on Friday. It has been set up by two companies—Taxidel and GHV. The system not only deducts the ECC and MCD tolls, but also communicates the amount of deduction through SMS on the registered mobile numbers of vehicle owners who have the RFID tag.

“Every transaction with full details, such as the vehicle’s number plate, time of the transaction, amount of deduction, etc. will be registered in the system and the same will be visible in the control room. It has been decided that the transactions will be audited after every one hour. To recharge the RFID tags, vehicle owners can download the ‘MCD Toll App’ from the Play Store. This system will help the police too,” Sahay said.

At least 300 cameras have been installed to capture the activities at toll plaza centres. The cameras can capture a picture within the area of 150 sqm in the dark and between 1 and 2 km in the daytime, SDMC engineers said.