Nitin Gadkari says toll system to end in India

Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that Centre is going to end the existing toll system in India and replace it with a satellite-based toll collection system. Gadkari told news agency ANI that the money will be deducted from the bank account of people and the amount of distance covered by them will be charged accordingly. On complaints of high toll taxes, Gadkari said that highways save time and fuel. “Earlier, it used to take 9 hours to travel from Mumbai to Pune, now it is reduced to 2 hours …” he added. In December last year, Gadkari had announced that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) plans to roll out the new system by March 2024. The NHAI will introduce toll collections that run on GPS technology. This means that drivers won’t have to stop at plazas to pay toll charges. The toll instead will be deducted automatically from the bank account of vehicle owners. A GPS-based toll system will match the GPS coordinates of a moving vehicle to calculate the fee. The toll fee would automatically be deducted as the vehicle approaches a collection point. For the system to work, all vehicles must be fitted with the new number plates that can be directly monitored through satellites using GPS. The automatic number plate reader (ANPR) cameras installed on highways will recognise the GPS-enabled number plate of customers to deduct the money from their bank account.