NEW DELHI: Fourteen toll collection agencies have been barred for two years for “irregular activities” in collecting the highway-user fee, the NHAI said on Thursday.
This comes almost two months after the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force unearthed a fraud of parallel cash collection from non-FASTag or black-listed FAStag vehicles through separate handheld machines instead of routing the cash collected through the toll management system (TMS).
In a statement, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said that based on the STF raid at the Atraila Shiv Ghulam toll plaza in Mirzapur and registered FIRs, the authority had served ‘show cause notices’ to the defaulting agencies, but their responses were not satisfactory. Performance securities worth over Rs 100 crore of the defaulting agencies have been forfeited and are being encashed for breach of contract, it said.
Meanwhile, in Parliament, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday informed Lok Sabha that the govt had formed a three-member enquiry committee to look into the toll fraud. The panel found that while the FASTag-based electronic toll collection (ETC) system, which accounts for 98% of all transactions, remains largely secure, certain loopholes have been exploited to bypass this setup, he added.
The NHAI is also considering installation of AI-powered audit cameras at high-value toll plazas to ensure accurate vehicle counting and classification, Gadkari said.
In a written reply to another question on wrong, or faulty, toll deduction on national highways, he told the House that the NHAI made refunds in case of 12.5 lakh transactions in 2024 and has levied Rs 2 crore fine on toll collecting agencies for incorrect deductions. However, the minister said there were 410 crore FASTag transactions in 2014 and the faulty deductions were only “0.03% of all FASTag transactions”.
To eliminate cash transactions at toll plazas for paying double the user fee as penalty for not having a FASTag or for using a blacklisted tag, the NHAI will implement a variable UPI payment system — this captures details such as type of vehicle, toll plaza and toll amount, preventing transfer of amount to a personal account. The initial trial has started at the Kherki Dhaula toll plaza in Haryana and will be extended to all plazas in the country.
Sources said the NHAI has zeroed down on payments through UPI considering the high usage of app-based digital payment interfaces. Moreover, as there will be variable UPI payment, there will be no scope for NHAI not getting details of exact transactions as toll operators cannot fix any UPI QR code at plazas for payment from commuters.