Charge vehicles entering congested areas electronically: Panel

A parliamentary panel has asked the Urban Development Ministry to take steps towards introducing electronic road pricing (ERP) system to automatically levy toll from vehicles entering congested areas.

The recommendation comes in the wake of substantial increase in number of vehicles, leading to jams on the roads in some of the big cities.

"The committee recommends the Ministry to conduct pilot studies for 'electronic road pricing (ERP)' system for reducing traffic in highly congested areas of metropolitan and other big cities," the standing committee on urban development said in it's report 'Demand for Grants (2017-2018)'.

The report, placed in Parliament recently, asked the government to introduce pre-paid cards for the vehicles to deduct toll electronically when the vehicles enter the congested area.

The committee, headed by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Pinaki Misra, said the ministry should develop a system to control road congestion in big cities.

It said the parking charges should be commensurate with the facilities available at the parking sites and also according to the congestion level in that area.

The Urban Development Ministry, however, is yet to study the recommendation of the committee, a ministry official said.

Singapore, which adopted ERP in 1998, was the first country in the world to implement electronic toll collection to manage traffic.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)