Akhilesh Srivastava to Initiate Pay-As-You-Use GPS Tolling

After implementing the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system in 383 toll plazas on national highways in the country, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), Government of India, is set to launch another groundbreaking toll payment system/policy – Pay-As-You-Use – that can replace all manual and digital tolling systems in the nation.

Subsuming this project into the ongoing cluster initiative to modernise India’s highways, Akhilesh Srivastava, Chief General Manager (CGM) of IT & Highway Operations division of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), is implementing a pilot version in the Delhi-Mumbai corridor.

GPS tolling involves the use of satellites for the automatic billing and deduction of Toll fees from vehicles on national highways. With the new system, the motorist will pay only for the actual distance travelled by them, as opposed to earlier policy that invoiced them on the basis of standard tariff.

Distance-based tolling or GPS tolling is projected to replace the ETC system, which is currently in use at several highways in India. As of now, it will work as an extension of ETC, and will work on FASTag stickers.

GPS tolling is already in use in several European countries including Germany, France, and Switzerland, where it has proven its superiority over electronic payment systems.

Being spearheaded by CGM Srivastava, the pilot project will find out all the pitfalls in and challenges ahead of GPS tolling and address them in order to scale the project and make all Toll gates entirely reliant on satellites.

Working of GPS Tolling

The On-Board Unit (OBU) in Pay-As-You-Use uses GPS/GSM satellite signals to continually determine the vehicle’s position and mobile-radio technology to transmit the data to a command centre using an array of high-speed, intelligent servers.

Software checks if the vehicle is driving on a tolled road section. It then calculates and generates an invoice of the toll fee. The invoice is sent to the motorist’s account linked to wallets such as FASTag. The amount will then be deducted instantly from that account.

Advantages of GPS Tolling

The advantages of GPS tolling are:

• Cost-effective on extensive and complexly tolled road networks, as GPS tolling requires no roadside infrastructure, such as Toll gantries or plazas, for toll collection.
• Can be used all-over India as a unified system, unlike manual or ETC systems that require individual software and equipment for each Toll gate.
• Has inbuilt technologies that can detect and document toll fraud, making the process transparent.
• Has OBUs to take over all data collection functions for toll calculation.
• Will make FASTag-powered ETC much faster and accurate.
• Can be integrated with and operated from one dedicated national command centre, reducing the need for and cost of IT infrastructure.
• Will allow national highway commuters to pay only for the distance they travel, thereby reducing net fares by significant margins.
• Will drastically reduce the cost of building road infrastructure and employing toll collectors.
• Is highly accurate and precise, and can fully automate the tolling process. Manual payment will still be an option in case of a failed transaction.

There are several other futuristic projects in the NHAI’s pipeline that are being spearheaded by Akhilesh Srivastava. As of now, the NHAI and its highway operations CGM are on the verge of completing several projects in the cluster initiative, which includes Wayside Amenities and Electronic Toll Collection.

For successfully helming these and other infrastructural aspirations of India, the NHAI CGM recently was awarded the CIDC Vishwakarma Award for lifetime achievement as Public Officer by the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC).

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Hi I am Rishivalle, a content writer having an experience of 3 years. I love to provide content for travel Updates in India. You can also find me in twitter and Linkedin @rishivalle020.