UNION Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that the Government is conducting pilot projects to replace toll plazas with automatic number plate recognition system, which will enable deduction of fee from vehicle owners’ bank accounts. Speaking at the Mindmine Summit, the Road Transport and Highways Minister said after introduction of FASTags, toll income of State-owned National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) increased by Rs 15,000 crore per year. “And now, we are going to launch automobile number plate technology (Automatic Number Plate Reader cameras) by which there will be no toll plazas,” he said, without giving further details. During 2018-19, the average waiting time for vehicles at toll plazas was 8 minutes.

 

With the introduction of FASTags during 2020-21 and 2021-22, the average waiting time for vehicles has now come down to 47 seconds. Although that is a considerable improvement in the waiting time, at certain locations, especially near cities, and densely populated towns, there are still some delays at toll plazas during peak hours. Gadkari on Tuesday said that he has asked officials of his department to look for a uniform charging system for electric buses manufactured by different companies. Gadkari said that States are facing problems as electric buses of different companies have different charging systems.