Canada inspires gateless toll booths on NH-8

With an aim to ensure non-stop travel on the Gurgaon Expressway, concessionaire firm Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DSCL) plans to introduce gateless toll booths, on lines of the ones operational in Canada and other foreign countries. HT reports.

With an aim to ensure non-stop travel on the Gurgaon Expressway, concessionaire firm Delhi-Gurgaon Super Connectivity Limited (DSCL) plans to introduce gateless toll booths, on lines of the ones operational in Canada and other foreign countries. For this, the firm has introduced a scheme to popularise the use of smart tags.

HT Image

DSCL has not only offered a discount on purchase of smart tags but are also replacing faulty devices for free. A total of about 95,000 commuters use the smart tag of the more than 2 lakh vehicles that cross the tall plaza daily.

About 1.05 lakh travellers still depend on the cash option and halt at the plaza to pay the toll.

In countries like Austria, Singapore and UAE, almost 100% commuters on tolled highways use tag-like devices, DSCL officials said.

“The Canadian government has authorised the concessionaire companies to install devices that can read the registration number of vehicles and prepare a monthly toll bill and recover the same from the owners directly.

The firms also have the power to slap fines in case the owner fails to pay the bill in time,” said Patrick Viellard, CEO, Egis Infra Management India, a French company assisting DSCL on toll management for the last two months.

Manhad Narula, director, DSCL, said the issue had been taken up with the Ministry of Road and Highways and NHAI. The smart tag price has been reduced from Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,200 till March 10.