Toll booths to go, GPS-based system by next year

Toll booths across the country and the long wait there will soon become a thing of the past, Union minister Nitin Gadkari told parliament today. Instead, there will be GPS-based system that will track cars and levy charges accordingly. Once the system becomes operational, it will lead to seamless movement of vehicles across the country, added the minister, who started trending on Twitter soon after. 
“I want to assure the House that within one year, all physical toll booths in the country will be removed,” the Union Minister for Road Transport ad Highways said in the Lok Sabha.

“Toll money will be collected based on GPS imaging,” he said, adding that the system will be in place within year.
In December, Mr Gadkari had promised a “toll naka mukt Bharat (India devoid of toll barriers)”. 

The GPS system will be obtained with the help of Russia and the toll charges will be directly deducted from the user’s bank account, the minister had said.
In February, Mr Gadkari’s ministry had made  automatic toll plaza payment system FASTag mandatory. The government had said the system would help promote digital payment of fees, reduce waiting time and fuel consumption, and provide for a seamless passage through fee plazas.

The Transport Ministry had mandated FASTag in “M and N” categories of vehicles. “M” category stands for a vehicle with at least four wheels used for carrying passengers. And category “N” stands for a vehicle with four wheels used for carrying goods as well as passengers.

Those who don’t instal FASTag in their vehicles or have a tag that does not work will have to pay twice the fee for the category of the vehicle they are driving, the government had said.