Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari is to inaugurate the Narendra Modi government’s plan to collect toll through Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) on Oct. 27.
The ETC system has already been installed at 55 toll plazas and their integration with CCH operators has almost been completed, a press release said.
A pilot project for Interoperable ETC system of 10 toll plazas between Mumbai (Charoti) and Ahmadabad has already been tested and seamless ETC on this section is successfully in operation.
The central government has issued orders to incorporate ETC lanes as a mandatory clause in the contracts awarded for all future highway projects. The ETC system will be included through supplementary agreements in those projects which have not yet been started, the statement said.
For implementing ETC on pan-India basis, a new company Indian Highways Management Company Limited has already been constituted with equity participation from NHAI (25%), Concessionaires (50%) and Financial Institutions (25%).
The new company will collect toll through ETC, manage the project strategically, administratively, legally, technically, commercially and provide services of central ETC system which includes toll transaction clearing house operations, helpdesk support and setting up of call centres for Incident Management, Intelligent Transport Systems among others.
Necessary amendments have already been made in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 for fitment of RFID tag on vehicles for ETC.