Toll booths will be history soon, to be replaced by GPS-based collection

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday (March 18) told the Lok Sabha that GPS-based toll collection would replace toll booths across the country within one year. He said 93% of the vehicles pay toll using FASTag, but the rest have still not taken it despite paying a double toll.

Gadkari said he has asked for police inquiry for the 7 per cent vehicles which are not paying toll using FASTags yet. He said such cases involved toll theft and GST evasion.

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FASTag was implemented this year to avoid long queues at toll gates. The toll collection has since risen rapidly. The NHAI said the FASTag is helping it get more than ₹100 crore every day. Gadkari said new vehicles have FasTags fitted in them, while the government has said it would give free FASTags for old vehicles.

Gadkari had also made the announcement during his address to the ASSOCHAM Foundation on December 17, last year.

The GPS-based system tracks vehicle movements and deducts the toll from the linked bank account of the vehicle owner. Gadkari had said the toll collected in the next five years would amount to ₹1.34 lakh crore when the new system is implemented. He had said the government will put in place a system to fit GPS systems on older vehicles. Currently, all new commercial vehicles are already equipped with GPS tracking technology.

For the current fiscal year, Gadkari commented that total collected by end-March 2021 was expected to be around ₹34,000 crore. The FASTag was introduced in 2016.

Also read: If you want good service, you have to pay: Gadkari on toll collection

The country is currently gearing up for the mandatory use of FASTags from January 1. FASTags do away with the need to stop at toll booths and physically pay, thus helping ease congestion at booths across the country.

From February 16, vehicles without FASTag are required to pay double toll fees at electronic toll plazas.