NHAI’s Guidelines for Toll centres to reduce waiting time

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) issued guidelines for Toll centres to reduce waiting time to 10 seconds per vehicle at any point of time.

What is yellow line?

According to the guidelines, yellow lines at toll plazas will reduce the waiting queue of vehicles to 100 metres even during peak hours. If queue is beyond 100 metres, vehicles at the front will pass without paying toll.

Background

NHAI highlights, it has successfully transitioned to 100 per cent cashless tolling from February 2021. Overall FASTag penetration has reached to 96 per cent to 99 per cent penetration. As the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) penetration is increasing in India, NHAI is emphasising to have a new design and construct upcoming toll plazas based on traffic projections for next 10 years.

What is electronic toll collection?

It is a wireless system that automatically collect usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, toll bridges, HOV lanes and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative unlike toll booths, where vehicles stop and driver manually pays toll with cash or card.  FASTag is one such example.

About FASTag

This electronic toll collection system in India is operated by NHAI. It uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to make toll payments directly from prepaid or savings account linked to it. The tag is affixed on windscreen of vehicle and enables to drive through toll plazas without stopping for transactions. State-run oil marketing companies like IOC, BPCL and HPCL signed MoUs in 2019 to enable use of FASTag to do purchases at petrol pumps.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021