Chips in vehicles to alter toll-road ride

Serpentine queues and physical payment at a highway toll plazas will be over in some time — if the government has its way, that is.

Based on the recommendations of Unique Identification Authority of India  chairman Nandan Nilekani, the Union road transport and highways ministry has adopted radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for electronic toll collection on highways, to ensure a seamless ride for highway users, Kamal Nath said at recent conference.

The RFID chip, to be installed on the windscreens of vehicles, is not unlike a prepaid SIM card.

RFID-enabled gates at toll gates will track vehicle movement and deduct toll from the chip without the bother of having to stop.

And vehicle owners will be able to top-up their RFID chips with the same ease as in mobile phones.

Nath said the recharge facility would be easily available in neighbourhoods.

“Chips will be mandatory for all vehicles,” Nath said.

His ministry is in talks with automobile bodies such as Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers to pre-install the chip in vehicles at the time of manufacturing. Owners of existing cars or trucks can buy the chip at Rs70 each.

At a later stage, the data contained in chip may be used for parking, vehicle tracking as well as traffic enforcement purposes.

While rolling out the new scheme means a comfortable ride for highway users, it translates into savings worth around Rs300 crore annually for the government, in the form of plugging of toll leakages. For highway users, it means a faster turnaround time.

K Venkatesh, senior vice-president, development projects business, Larsen & Toubro, one of the biggest highway developers, is enthused by the idea.

“It’s quite a workable model. But if someone wants to pay toll in cash, that should be possible too,” he said, citing the example of most developed countries where on a highway with six lanes, one or two lanes are for those who wish to make a physical payment. This could also be handy if a vehicle’s chip is not working.

Only 9,000 km of the 70,000km of the national highways is currently tolled. With the UPA-II government’s plan to build 35,000km of tolled section during its tenure, there is a huge opportunity in the offing. In addition, the centre is also trying to impress upon the states to adopt the technology on the state highways as well, with a total network of 154,000km.

The implementation of RFID means big bucks for the providers of the technology, which is not restricted in a few hands. Merlin S Leo, business head, Gemini Traze RFID Pvt Ltd, said toll collection was a huge opportunity in India.

“We may take some time before hands-free toll collection technology becomes a possibility, but the long-term outlook is certainly positive,” he added.

To date, the RFID technology has proven itself in the warehousing and supply-chain business. Retailers like Wal-Mart and the UD department of defence have made predominant use of this technology. RFID-based toll technologies are present in the US, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Dubai.