Back in March, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said that there should be no toll plaza within 60 km on national highways. He said that he will ensure that this is implemented within three months. Fast forward to August, Nitin Gadkari has announced that all old vehicles will be fitted with new number plates before doing away with toll plazas in the country. These new number plates will be the first step towards the removal of toll plazas. These new number plates can be directly monitored via satellite using GPS and a sophisticated system.
“The use of tamper-proof High-Security Registration Plates (HSRPs) for new vehicles was started from 2019, where government agencies can get all the information about the vehicles. Now, we have decided to provide the same plate to the old vehicles also.” “At present, you have to pay full charges even at toll plazas located 60 km away from each other. Now, if you use the highway only for 30 km, you will be charged only half the price with the help of new technology,”
The Transport Minister also said the Centre is working to free the country from toll plazas soon even though this initiative is still in the planning stages. He said, “There will be no stoppage for vehicles and hence, there will be less pollution and it will also save time. With the new technology, money can be deducted directly from drivers’ bank accounts. About 97% of vehicles in India are already on Fast-tag. The Indian road infrastructure would be at par with that in the United States before 2024 Lok Sabha polls”.
Doing away with toll plazas does not mean that you won’t have to pay any tax for the highways. It means that this new system will be more efficient in deducting it from your account. Many countries all over the world already follow this system wherein the charge is directly deducted with the help of cameras placed on these highways. These cameras detect the car’s number plate which is directly linked to the car owner’s bank account. All of this happens seamlessly without the car needing to stop thus making the roads free of bottlenecks or traffic.