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MOTORINDIA
l
January 2012
175
Proposed electronic toll collectionwill
save Rs. 10 billion annually
The National Highways
Authority of India propos-
es to replace manual toll
collection at highway toll
plazas with electronic toll
collection (ETC), a nation-
wide automated collection
system. CRISIL Research
expects this changeover to
eliminate waiting time of
vehicles and save fuel worth
Rs. 10 billion per year. The
savings in fuel will far out-
weigh the initial cost of Rs.
100 per vehicle that the sys-
tem requires from vehicle
owners.
“Currently, there are close
to 525 toll plazas, operating on na-
tional and State highways in India.
Over 20,000 vehicles cross these
plazas daily, each queuing up for ap-
proximately 5-10 minutes awaiting
their turn to pay the toll fare. Each
vehicle consumes almost 0.5-1.0 li-
tre of fuel in an hour. Collectively,
these vehicles spend around 1,800-
3,600 hours at toll plazas, which
accounts for a daily wastage of Rs.
30-60 million and an annual Rs. 10
billion,” says Ajay D’souza, Head,
CRISIL Research.
The ETC system, based on radio
frequency identification (RFID),
comprises a wireless on-board unit
(OBU) fitted into a vehicle and
a stationary roadside unit (RSU)
placed at the toll plaza. The OBU
is, by design, compatible at toll sta-
tions across the country. The RSU
can sense an OBU even as a vehi-
cle moves at 50 km per hour and
automatically deduct toll from the
owner’s pre-paid toll account with a
central clearing house.
Said Prasad Koparkar, Head,
CRISIL Research: “Apart from re-
ducing fuel wastage, the ETC sys-
tem can plug leakages in toll col-
lection. Toll leakages occur when
a vehicle does not pay the requisite
toll or when booth operators under-
report collections. Based on the cur-
road transportation
rent industry estimate of about 10
per cent leakage, annual losses for
road developers are estimated to be
approximately Rs. 12 billion. An
automated tolling system can effec-
tively address this area of grave con-
cern for road developers and lenders
with exposure to road projects.”
The system will require the Gov-
ernment to invest in two major
system components to enable col-
lections to flow to toll operators – a
central database where the clearing-
house will store account informa-
tion, and networks that will connect
toll plazas to the database. Revenues
from tolled stretches will flow di-
rectly to the involved operators via
the central clearing-house.
The system is likely to come up in
a phased manner, with pilot projects
on dense highway stretches.
The automated collection prom-
ises to eliminate waiting time
and ease congestion at toll pla-
zas. The system is also equipped
to detect defaults in toll collec-
tion.