Indian Toll System- FASTag to be replaced by a GPS Technology

With a view to transform India into a digitally empowered society, NHAI has made FASTag mandatory across India and to fill the gap due to that physical infrastructure, Indian toll collection will be run on GPS technology i.e. fully automatic.

In this story, we’ll discuss FASTag and the new GPS-based toll system which will kill FASTag.

The Story

Well, we all once or many times have seen how things stand at Indian toll plazas before the launch of FASTag. Remember!!! That long waiting queue, where you have been stuck! Waiting for the tariff to be calculated, collecting the change, and then waiting for the receipt. No doubt that’s too frustrating and a painful process to kill time and waste fuel in a stream of vehicles whilst paying a toll.

Just so to get rid of it and to ensure digital infrastructure, a seamless vision of a National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to set up a National Electronic toll collection (NETC) system in India brings on Fastag in a practice, and to make people do so, they made it mandatory throughout India at every toll plaza in Jan 2020.

What actually a Fastag is?

Fastag is a device kind tag, each with a unique code that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to directly make toll payments through moving vehicles. Yeah, you do not need to stand in line and wait for your turn as it is affixed to the vehicle windscreen and allows you to pay tolls directly through your Fastag-linked account. You can purchase and recharge Fastag from any of the NETC Member Banks and through point-of-sale counters at national highway toll plazas. No surprise, you can even buy it on Amazon.

FASTags have been a part of India’s toll collection system for a year now. However, before that, a hybrid model of the collection was followed. Where one lane was reserved for cash payment and tags both which leads to long queues, traffic jams, and more fuel emissions.

Well, It saves you from the inconvenience caused, especially with keeping, finding, and collecting exact change to be paid and so being a FASTag user, you don’t need to carry cash, else what is needed? Also, It’s even useful in eliminating human intervention i.e, labour. so, the Government can utilize this workforce on other productive works and save them from attacks by goons on toll plazas as if all processes went digital, thief attacks wouldn't happen for money. It has proved to be the tactical solution to all such problems as it helps in lowering fuel emission, saving fuel for future use, encouraging digital payments, and leading to a paperless economy.

No doubt, For several years the government struggled and sought to make FASTag viable, feasible and ultimately, after investing lots of labour and capital, the government made it mandatory and got it to work. And just in a year FASTag already made a great impact on our economy and generated huge revenues, Well, daily tolls collection through it reaches a record high of nearly Rs. 104 Cr in Feb 2021, Even in the same month approx. 20 lakh new FASTag users have been added, taking total FASTag issuance to 2.8 crores.

Before moving ahead to the GPS-based toll system, Let us discuss an amusing incident that happened in March 2021 on the busy Mangalore-Udupi highway. It’s no wonder that a few angry residents of village Hejamadi in Karnataka, built their own ‘parallel road’ along toll booths to make way for local buses due to high toll fees. Well, before doing so they made a petition to grant a concession for four local buses, but it never was fulfilled and it has led to people taking matters into their own hands. Later, after written assurance, they stop construction. This is a real incident where you can sense that frustration in public due to toll booths and making toll payments. Now here to stop such incidents and toll thefts, the government is taking steps. What if that toll booth, where they built a parallel road, was removed?

Government to move on GPS based toll collection

Yes, as soon as FASTag became mandatory, on 18 March 2021 the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announced in Parliament that all toll booths in India will be removed within a year and replaced with a completely new GPS based toll collection system! This means it will kill a year old ‘FASTag’. However, Mr. Gadkari on revealing facts in Loksabha said 93% of the vehicles pay toll using FASTag but the remaining 7% percent of vehicles have still not taken FASTag despite paying a double toll. In just a month after making it mandatory it has reached 93% of vehicles, figures are great!

So what's the need to replace it with a GPS-based toll collection system?

Usually, FASTags are not installed in cars, they are just pasted on the windscreen, so cases of toll evasion and GST evasion by truck drivers or others are very common. What they do is they stick blacklisted tags on the windscreen and then they argue with the officials in the hope that they’ll be allowed to go. Either they are not allowed to leave and make payment through cash or the authorities let them go under pressure due to increasing traffic. They use these tricks to evade tolls. But with the new GPS tracking system, the government will be able to track all the defaulters and also ensure that users only pay for the distance covered, unlike the flat rates in place currently. This will eliminate traffic jams on Indian highways and Along with it, the cost of maintenance of toll booths will also be saved. Great!

What is GPS-based toll collection and how will it work?

Look, GPS (Global Positioning System) technology is not new to us. We have seen its use in mobile phones, commercial trucks carrying goods, school buses, or ambulances to track their movement and locate them within seconds. After implementing this, a vehicle tracking system (GPS Tracker) will be installed in your vehicle to track the movement and speed of the vehicle and whenever a specified toll collection point is reached, an amount to be paid will be deducted from your linked account or e-wallet and hence it will give and save real-time data.

This new tolling system will operate on a specific mechanism that will collect funds for tolls using GPS imaging technology on vehicles. It will bring a free-flow satellite-based ETC system that uses GPS and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). Well, the availability of internet and GPS connectivity is vital for its operation.

Mr. Gadkari said a new GPS-based system for toll collection will be introduced with Russian expertise and expects a toll income of Rs 1.34 lakh crore in the next five years. Therefore, if the plans run accordingly, we will have this new tolling system by 2022.

The Way Forward

The government is working hard to facilitate our journey on national highways, whether by implementing Fastag or by introducing some new GPS-based system in the future. There has been a lot of effort in setting up FASTag and now it will be very challenging to bring a GPS-based toll collection system as most people resist change and it will be more difficult to follow if it happens so frequently. However, this system will not be so easy to implement, people may criticize this plan, as VTS devices will provide real-time location and it will keep all the records and track your travel journeys and past trips. So, before implementing a GPS-based toll collection system, the Government should address the concerns related to privacy in processing Geo-location data and ensure the collected and transmitted data to store safely.

But in the end, the purpose of toll collection is to charge the public for using roads, bridges, tunnels, etc. to recover the cost of repairs, maintenance, and expenditure on collection. And in reality, we all know the quality of our roads. So let's hope and see how the government will use the collected toll amount for better transportation and construction of quality roads.