All toll collecting points within 60 kilometers of each other on national highways will now be removed in the next three months.
The Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari announced this during Lok Sabha, where he also talked about upcoming roads in India.
Read on to find out all the details!
Only One Toll Every 60 Kilometres
Gadkari has announced that all toll collection points on the national highways that are within 60 kilometers of each other will be closed in the next three months. “There will be only one toll collection within 60 km distance.”
He was talking during a discussion in Lok Sabha on the roads and highways allocation of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year that will begin on April 1.
According to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) joint managing director Anilkumar Gaikwad, a one-way toll for a light vehicle (car) on the Rs 55,000-crore Samruddhi corridor connecting Nagpur and Mumbai will be roughly Rs 1,100.
Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system using passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is implemented in order to make tolling efficient and to ensure seamless movement of traffic.
Presently, all fee plaza lanes on national highways have been transformed into FASTag lanes from February onwards. It is seeing rapid adoption with 96% penetration across the country.
The official data of electronic payment mode of collecting tolls suggested that by June end 2021, the toll collection was Rs. 97 crores in a day. Whereas it crossed the mark of 100 crores and was recorded at 103 crores by July 1, 2021. This figure fell a little short of the highest mark of 107 crores which was recorded in March 2021, just a month before the second wave of the pandemic.
Upcoming Roads in India
The Minister also stated that the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway, the Delhi-Jaipur, the Delhi-Mumbai, and the Delhi-Dehradun expressways will be done by the end of 2022. The distance will reportedly be covered in four hours.
A tunnel will be opened under the Zoji La, an 11,650 feet high pass on the Srinagar-Leh highway by 2024.
Additionally, the route to Mansarovar will be ready on our side by the end of 2023 and citizens will be able to visit through Uttarakhand.