The central government is preparing to eliminate vehicle dwell times at toll plazas. Multi-lane, free-flow tolling will begin at Chaurasi in Gujarat in May, reducing the ...read more

By introducing Fastag for toll charges, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has already reduced the queue of vehicles at toll plazas to a great extent, but now it is preparing to completely eliminate the few minutes that it takes for vehicles to stop at the toll plaza and the toll to be deducted.

The central government has been working on a toll-free highway concept for quite some time, and it will be implemented next month. This means it will begin in May at Chaurasi in Surat, Gujarat, where the toll plaza has been removed. NHAI aims to implement multi-lane, free-flow tolling on national highways across the country within the next three years.

The government is taking steps to remove the queues of vehicles at toll plazas.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is continuously working to reduce vehicle queues at toll plazas. Fastag has played an effective role in saving time. Last month, the government also completely banned cash transactions at toll plazas.

Now, even if the toll fee is not deducted from the Fastag due to technical reasons, cash is not being accepted from any driver. This initiative to digitalize transactions is also aimed at reducing dwell time at toll plazas.

Despite this, it still takes some time for vehicles to stop and for the Fastag to deduct the fee. Furthermore, if a vehicle's Fastag toll is deducted, the vehicles behind it must wait.

Toll plazas will be removed from the national highway.

A senior NHAI official said that this system is being abolished and a new system is being implemented to remove toll plazas from all national highways. Toll barriers will be replaced by gantries equipped with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and RFID readers. These will allow the scanning of FASTags and vehicle registration numbers (VRNs) without stopping or slowing down the vehicle.

This will eliminate vehicle queues and human intervention. A senior official explained that if a FASTag has a technical defect or lacks sufficient funds, it is proposed to collect double the toll fee from such vehicles through an e-challan, using the same process as an e-challan.

He said that multi-lane free-flow tolling will first begin in May at Chaurasi in Gujarat. This system will then be implemented at the Gharaunda toll plaza on NH-44 in Haryana, and the goal is to implement this modern system nationwide within the next three years.

 PC: Jagran