The Indian government is rapidly working to boost the road infrastructure of the country and in his recent speeches Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has made it clear that the government is aiming to use flagship technology in order to manage traffic on Indian roads and highways. With an aim to phase out toll plazas from national highways, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) organised a day-long stakeholder consultation workshop on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based tolling in India. The objective of the workshop was to seek input and suggestion from various industry experts and stakeholders on different aspects of the GNSS-based tolling system. The workshop will help strategize and design the future roadmap for free-flow tolling systems in India based on GNSS technology.
Various stakeholders including relevant government departments, ISRO, NIC, and industry players such as Vehicle Manufacturers, AIS-140 On-Board Unit (OBU) manufacturers, Global GNSS service providers, Banks, Payment Aggregators/Gateway Service providers were invited for deliberations on GNSS based tolling system.
Sessions and presentations were held with consultants and industry experts on global best practices for GNSS based tolling, discussions were held on the findings of the pilot carried out by NHAI on Delhi – Mumbai corridor and various aspects of GNSS architecture, payment settlement process, proposed enforcement measures and discussion on legal framework requirements were also discussed.
How will government collect toll tax if the booths are removed from national highways
In the proposed GNSS technology-based tolling system, the NH stretch will be geo-fenced and shall consist of virtual tolling points. Whenever a vehicle fitted with GNSS OBU shall pass through this virtual tolling points, information on distance travelled will be calculated based on satellite signals from multi-constellation such as NaVIC, GPS etc. and applicable fee shall be computed by the central GNSS software system and deducted from the users’ bank account linked to the OBU.
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