NEW DELHI: Paving the way for the implementation of the Budget announcement regarding “Pay as you use” tolling in India, the National Highways Authority of India is executing a pilot project to study the implement ability of the system in the country. The pilot project involves implementing a satellite based electronic toll collection system running on GPS/GSM technology for around 500 commercial vehicles on the Delhi Mumbai national highway. The project will run for one year.
Working on a combination of mobile telecommunications technology (GSM) and the satellite-based Global Positioning System, the proposed tolling system would be able to deduct money from a vehicle account, credit the money to the concessionaire within one day and open the toll gate. In case of a failed transaction it would be able to alert the toll operator to collect payment manually and not open the gate
The pilot project will look at ways to integrate the new solution with the existing prepaid wallet account offered by NHAI under the FASTag program. It will also draw a comparison between distance based tolling and the existing tolling system, as also virtual tolling Vs normal tolling.