Hassled at toll booth? Pre-paid tag for your car is on the way

Your drive down the country's highways is set to get smoother, specially at toll plazas. The roads and highways ministry is considering a pre-paid tag for vehicles that will allow non-stop transit and deduct toll on the go. Not just this, the new system will minimise toll booth losses, ministry officials said. Prasad Nichenametla reports.

Your drive down the country's highways is set to get smoother, specially at toll plazas.

HT Image

The roads and highways ministry is considering a pre-paid tag for vehicles that will allow non-stop transit and deduct toll on the go. Not just this, the new system will minimise toll booth losses, ministry officials said.

The spark for this idea came from a committee under Nandan Nilekani's Unique Identification Authority, which is working towards creating unique IDs for all citizens. The committee made the toll tag recommendation to the ministry.

This technology is already in use in the US and South American and is economical, compared to other such systems worldwide.

The technology allows tamper-resistant stickers that can be placed on windshields and cost Rs 100 per tag with almost unlimited life. The tag would have details of the car, which would be read by the reader at the booth.

"Once (the recommendations are) accepted, we will begin with private-operated booths where one lane on each side will be made electronic. Based on the reception from users, we will expand it," Ravi Palekar, GM (electronics), National Highways Authority of India, told Hindustan Times.

The committee also recommended a central toll clearing house that would network all toll plazas and allow uninterrupted passage on expressways.

The committee was set up to plug leaks in toll collections. Though there is no official figure, estimates say as much of 20 per cent of toll collected doesn't reach the government.