Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that the government will implement FasTag as well as S and GNSS based toll collection system on select national highways. In a written reply to a question, he said that this new system has been implemented as a pilot project on Bengaluru-Mysore Highway of NH-275 in Karnataka and Panipat-Hisar route of NH-709 in Haryana.
Satellite service faster than FasTag
Nitin Gadkari said that in addition to the existing FASTag facility, the Central Government has decided to initially implement the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system on selected sections of the National Highway on a pilot basis. Fastag service was started with the aim of reducing the time taken at toll plazas and now preparations to take another big step in this direction are almost complete. The Union Minister had earlier also told that the new (Satellite based toll system) is faster than Fastag.
Now toll plazas will be virtual
The biggest advantage of this satellite based toll tax service is that with its arrival, traveling on national highways will become even easier, such that you will not have to stop at any toll tax like at present and this tax will be collected from you while moving. Talking about its functioning in detail, the FasTag system currently implemented at toll plazas for tax collection works on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which collect toll automatically. But there will be virtual tolls in GNSS based tolling system. This means that you will not be able to see where the tolls are, nor will you have to stop at them.
This is how GNSS system will work
Virtual gantries will be installed in the satellite system for toll collection, which will be connected to the GNSS enabled vehicle and as soon as a car passes through these virtual tolls, the fixed amount will be deducted from the user’s account. Such services are being provided in many countries of the world, these include Germany and Russia. It is clear that the drivers are going to get relief from the time they have to spend on toll tax through Fastag.
Why are NH projects getting delayed?
In response to another question, Union Road Minister Nitin Gadkari said that out of all the National Highway projects started about 10 years ago, 697 projects are getting delayed from their scheduled time. Explaining the reasons behind the delay, he said that the biggest reasons for delay in NH Projects are land acquisition, statutory approval, removal of encroachment, law and order, financial problems of the contractor as well as epidemics like Covid-19, rain- There are unexpected incidents ranging from floods to cyclones and landslides.