It is possible that the people walking on the highway-expressway will soon get rid of standing in lines at the toll block. For this, the government is planning to bring 2 new methods to collect toll.
Although, work is going on on these right now but soon they can become true. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that technology will be changed to collect toll. He has said that within a year, the GPS-based toll collection system will be fully implemented in place of toll booths.
He said in a statement in the Lok Sabha, “I want to assure the House that toll booths will be abolished in the country within a year. This means that toll collection will be done through GPS. The money will be taken on the basis of GPS imaging (on the vehicles).” Gadkari had said at the end of last year that work is underway on new technology for toll collection. He had said that number plate technology is good. According to Gadkari, a computerized digitized system will be made for toll.
2 options were being considered
The Union Minister has said that the government is considering 2 options to collect the toll. The first is the way in which the GPS of the car will help in collecting the toll directly from the bank account of the vehicle owner. The second option is of the number plate. In this, the old number plates will be replaced with new plates and then toll will be collected with the help of a software through a computerized system. However, he also said that it is still being discussed and no decision has been taken regarding which of these options will be chosen.
How is toll tax deducted now?
At present, toll tax is collected in two ways. The first way is Fastag and the second is to pay cash at the toll booth. Fastag has been installed on about 93 percent of the vehicles in the country. At the same time, 7 percent of the vehicles are still running without fastag. Nitin Gadkari has said that orders have been given to the police to check such vehicles. Significantly, Fastag was introduced in 2016 and it was made mandatory from February last year. If toll is not paid with Fastag, additional rupees have to be paid.