“Cashless” Toll Tax Collection at the Booths to Effectively Diminish Traffic Congestion

While travelling on the national highways may be a rewarding task owing to the lack of traffic on it, the same is often time overwhelmed with the traffic congestion one faces in the toll gates. This is a recurring instance that has clearly expressed every commuter’s distaste and disappointments. Concerning the issues, Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, Chief General Manager (IT and Highway Operations) of NHAI initiated and successfully executed the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) project. This has effectively reduced the traffic congestion at the toll booths to a certain extent but there are still a number of shortcomings in this specific sector.

In order to extrapolate the effect of ETC even further, Mr Akhilesh Srivastava has introduced yet another innovative tolling technology to ease the distress of traffic congestion at the toll plazas. This new technology will promote the concept of "Digital India" and "Cashless India" owing to the fact that the entire toll tax collection is going to be taking place using a new mobile application. Commuters will have the complete leeway of choosing their mode of payment of the tax – either directly via the mobile application or via their linked credit or debit cards. The chargeable toll amount will automatically be deducted from the linked bank account.

This suggested innovation is going to be tested out in five different stretches to assess their productivity in controlling the traffic congestion at the toll plazas. These five stretches include Delhi – Mumbai, Delhi – Chandigarh, Bengaluru – Chennai and Delhi – Kolkata as of now. The mobile application is currently being developed and is going to be unveiled in a few months, an official claimed. Mr Srivastava is the one behind the primary concept of this technological innovation and is currently supervising the progress of the project.

An official from NHAI further claimed that the process of registration on this application is going to be super simple, without any kind of complexities. All that the commuters have to do is install the application and input the details of their vehicles which will then be verified from the national vehicle database, Vahan. The commuters will have the choice of either paying the tax while physically crossing the toll plaza or make an upfront payment before the initiation of their journey. In case of the same, the application will generate a QR code which the driver has to scan to confirm their upfront payment while crossing the toll plaza.

Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, head of highway operations in India is working ways to integrate the latest technological innovations into the highway sector to enhance the overall operations. This is yet another strategy that is not just expected to boost the transparency in the process of toll tax collection but also improve the overall efficiency of it. The successful implementation of this strategy will create milestones in the process of toll tax collection throughout the country and streamline the process even further. This will also wipe out the unnecessary fraudulency in the sector.

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