Distance-Based Toll Tax Payment to Soon Expect a Pilot Run on Delhi-Mumbai Highway

"Pay as you use" is one of the newest agendas that the National Highways Authority of India is administering with regards to their toll tax collection. After the successful implementation of the Electronic Toll Collection and FASTag, Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, CGM (IT and Highway Operations) of NHAI is brainstorming to execute yet another tax collection initiative under the supervision of NHAI. This pay as you use is a motive that will help deduct the tax amount based on the amount of distance the vehicle has travelled on the national highways.

For bringing accuracy to the process of toll tax collection, a new initiative is in the works, the successful implementation of which will ensure charging adequate amount of money with respect to the distance traversed by the vehicles on the national highway. There have been no clarifications about the possible date of launch of this initiative but the officials have claimed that the same is expected to be soon tested out in a pilot run on the Delhi-Mumbai highway.

Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, who is working on the integration of the latest technological innovations in the highway operations, is working on this simultaneous project which incorporates the technology of geo-fencing for accurate results. The final stages of the pilot run are going to be executed in the coming few weeks after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways along NHAI after finalising the proposal of the charging toll-based on the distance traversed.

For people who aren’t of the concept of geo-fencing, it is operated by using global positioning system along with Radio frequency identification sticker to create a virtual geographic boundary which is consequently be integrated with a software. This software will be responsible to trigger a response when the mobile device enters or leaves the certain geographical boundary.

This initiative of geo-fencing is aligned with the concept of FASTag that Mr Akhilesh Srivastava introduced for the seamless commute on the national highways in India. An official claimed that the pilot run will be functional at the Delhi-Mumbai highway after the successful implementation of a toll plaza at the entry and exit points so that the commuters can easily pay for the distance travelled.

Apart from this project, Mr Srivastava is also working on the various prospects of highway operations, the Traffic Incident Management System and Road Assets Management System being the two important projects at the moment. The initiative of geo-fencing along with ETC and FASTag will ensure smooth and seamless commute and decongest the overwhelming traffic at the toll booths which was often the reason for a number of issues on the national highways.

As an Indian representative, Mr Akhilesh Srivastava was also part of the distinguished panellists at the 4th Roads and Highways summit. The event was held from April 09th – April 11th, 2018 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore. He spoke on two subjects at two different time slots on the first day of the event. His primary focus was to discuss several points concerning the subject of Highway Modernisation for Better Effectiveness and Sustainability.

#FASTag #NHAI #TollTax #AkhileshSrivastava

Harish Bandla is recently graduated from Savitribai Phule Pune University with a degree in marketing and Finance, his interests also include book reading, article writing. You can find him on LinkedIn and G+ as Harish32.