The important thing spotlight of the brand new toll system is {that a} satellite tv for pc or constellation of satellites will monitor the motion of autos and calculate the toll or consumer charge based mostly on the precise distance travelled. Which means autos will now not should cease at boundaries for the digital deduction of toll. The street transport and highways ministry amended the NH Charge Guidelines to permit toll assortment utilizing the GNSS-OBU system earlier this week. Officers mentioned the toll system will use NavIC, India’s satellite-based navigation system.
Every car will must be fitted with a non-transferable GNSS-OBU unit. This unit, which works as a monitoring machine, can both be put in externally (retrofitted) or come put in from the manufacturing unit. This unit will talk digitally with a ‘centralised/zonal toll charger’ software program that shall be put in alongside designated freeway stretches. This ‘toll charger’ will obtain inputs concerning distance and time travelled from the OBU fitted in autos. These OBUs shall be onboarded with the ‘toll charger’ by fintech firms, which can function the “issuer entity”, identical to there are issuer banks beneath the FASTag system.
The set up of OBUs shall be checked on the time of registration, re-registration and health take a look at.
Monitoring of the entry and exit of autos shall be finished utilizing digital gantries (a type of sign infrastructure) which are to be put in alongside the tolled freeway community. These will talk with GNSS-enabled autos. These gantries will thus function a digital toll sales space that can collect info reminiscent of car registration quantity, sort, and checking account particulars. When the GNSS-OBU car passes via this digital toll sales space, the system will mechanically deduct the consumer charge from the consumer’s account utilizing the prevailing FASTag ecosystem for fee.
Consumer charge shall be calculated real-time every time a car crosses the designated size of toll plazas, makes a U-turn, and leaves the GNSS stretch. The consumer will get an SMS of the toll deducted each time. The ‘toll charger’ will calculate the consumer charge based mostly on toll parameters outlined by NHAI reminiscent of sort of construction, that’s, bypass, expressway, or flyover, and many others.
To start with, the prevailing toll plazas may have devoted ‘GNSS lanes’ the place the barrier gates will usually keep open to permit uninterrupted passage of autos fitted with GNSS-OBUs. These lanes may have the superior readers to trace such autos whereas permitting them to zip via with out stopping. Subsequently, extra lanes shall be introduced beneath this method.
NHAI will convey out the bid doc within the subsequent two months and the goal is to make the primary stretch beneath industrial satellite-based tolling operational by April-June 2025.
Indian and world know-how majors, together with TCS, Infosys, Accenture, RailTel, TCIL, Sky Toll, Kapsch, BEMobile and Movyon, have expressed curiosity and submitted functions to develop the system for GNSS-based tolling.
GNSS-based tolling will begin with vehicles, buses and autos carrying harmful items since these already characteristic the Automobile Location Monitoring (VLT) system and do not contain privateness points. Different industrial autos would be the subsequent phase to be onboarded. Personal autos shall be introduced beneath GNSS monitoring as a part of the final stage in 2026-27.
The highway-owning businesses of Central govt have accomplished the geo-fencing of just about your entire size of nationwide highways. Geo-fencing is essential for marking the precise entry and exit factors for toll calculation. The GNSS tolling company will do geo-referencing of highways earlier than commencing GNSS-based tolling. The entire size of nationwide highways in India is round 1.4 lakh km with consumer charge being collected on roughly 45,000km.
Initially, GNSS-based tolling shall be rolled out on 2,000km of nationwide highways by June 2025. Will probably be prolonged to 10,000km in 9 months, 25,000km in 15 months, and 50,000km in two years.
