The proposed electronic toll collection system will ensure seamless travel across national highways and reduce revenue leakages, opines Road Ministry as well as general public  Electronic toll collection or ETC has been a hot topic of discussion for the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) in recent times. The benefits: Helps to save fuel and reduces emissions from idling and repeated stops for vehicles, lessens operating costs for toll operators, improves transparency of toll transactions, reduces traffic congestion and cuts down revenue outflow significantly. Therefore, it seems that the ETC system has an all-compassing advantage for users, commuters, toll operators and the government (especially NHAI[i]).
This prompted ConstructionBiz360 to run a poll on the government’s proposed ETC system, which supports the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Surprisingly, 100% voters felt that the proposed ETC system will be able to ensure seamless travel across national highways and reduce revenue leakages.
The minister for road transport and highways Kamal Nath is also optimistic of the RFID technology and opined that it will provide a uniform interoperable ETC system for paying tolls, thereby ensuring seamless travel across India.
Committee proposes RFID
In a bid to develop an efficient ETC system in the country, MORTH set up a five-member expert committee led by chairman Nandan Nilekani on April 20, 2010. After toiling hard for 2.5 months and examining several technologies, the committee recommended the RFID technology for ETC on national highways.
The reason: The RFID technology is maintenance-free, easy-to-install, durable and cost-competitive, when compared with alternatives such as dedicated short range communications (DSRC) and global navigational satellite system/cellular network (GNSS/CN). Currently, the technology is successfully implemented in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Dubai and the US.
In a recent letter to the road transport minister, Mr Nilekani thanked him for giving him the opportunity to chair the committee and mentioned about the excellent support of the other members, with a special emphasis on the valuable contribution of R C Palekar, general manager (Electronics) at NHAI.
However, Sidhartha Halder, a daily commuter on NH8, feels differently about the deployment of ETC. He is of the view that ETC will not be of much help as Indian roads are not up to the level of countries like France, Norway and the US, where it has been implemented. He further adds, “Indian drivers lack road sense and so it won’t help to ease traffic congestion during rush hours.”
It is expected that the nationwide operations of the said technology for ETC implementation on the country’s national highways will commence by May 2012. The 2-year period from now will witness the Centre engaging a suitable agency for preparing RFP[ii] document to select an international consultant. This will be followed by preparation of ETC blueprint, bidding, installation/commissioning of ETC systems at various toll plazas, setting up of central clearing house (CCH) and networking of all the toll plazas.
Jeeta Bandopadhyay
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