Toll booths to go in a year; GPS-based toll collection within 1 year: Gadkari

New Delhi: If Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari's words in parliament are anythingn to go by, within one year tool booths will become a thing of the past and will be replaced by GPS-based toll collection.

He said onT hursday that 93 per cent of the vehicles pay toll using FASTag, despite non-Fastag holders having to pay double toll. During Question hour, he said in the Lok Sabha "I want to assure the House that within one year all physical toll booths in the country will be removed. It means that toll collection will happen via GPS. The money will be collected based on GPS imaging (on vehicles)".

The minister said he has instructed police inquiry for those vehicles which do not pay toll using FASTags. There are cases of toll theft and GST evasion cases if FASTags are not fitted in vehicles. FASTags, which facilitate electronic payment of fee at toll plazas, was introduced in 2016.

From February 16, vehicles without FASTag are required to pay double toll fee at electronic toll plazas across the country.

Mandatory tags would also help in ensuring that vehicles pass seamlessly through the toll plazas, as the fee payment would be done electronically. Gadkari said new vehicles have FasTags fitted in them, while the government has said it will give free FASTags for old vehicles.

(Based on PTI feed)