New Delhi: The Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways on Monday said the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) System, which will allow commuters to travel seamlessly on highways without having to wait in long ques to pay a toll tax, will kick off at all 370 toll plazas across the country by October 31.
Initially, however, only two toll lanes on a highway will be earmarked for the interoperable Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag based ETC system, a ministry official said.
“We will expand the lanes earmarked for fast tag users depending on its penetration. Though 100% of the toll lanes will be equipped with ETC infrastructure, as of now only two lanes will be earmarked for smart tag users. In the remaining lanes, people can pay by cash, credit card, PayTM,” YS Malik, Road Transport and Highways Secretary has been quoted in a media report.
A vehicle installed with RFID also called FastTags that can be recharged once the balance gets over, will be able to drive past a toll plaza witout having to stop and pay the toll. The tag will have a unique code that will help identify the vehicles so when they will pass through a plaza, the system will read the code and automatically deduct the toll.
As of now, of the 40,00,000 vehicles plying on the highways, 620,000 have been installed with the RFID tags.
"Our aim is to get 15,00,000 vehicles installed with the smart tags by March 2018," the secretary for the road transport and highways added.
Currently, there are six private and public sector banks that have been appointed to run the central clearinghouse and manage all toll transactions.
If the ministry is successful in starting the RFID tag based ETC across the 370 toll plazas operational in the country, India would become the only country to have a uniform Electronic Toll Collection facility across its length and breadth. The United States and Europe use different ETC system in different cities.
The RFID tags can be installed by automobile manufacturers at their end or alternatively, drivers can buy the FastTags from the designated banks and toll plazas.
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