NEW DELHI: GNSS-based tolling on NHs won’t take off in the immediate future as senior government officials have told a Parliamentary panel that the new system will be deployed only after India has its own requisite constellation of navigational satellites with full coverage.
Sources said that in response to a question on the new tolling mechanism, a top road transport ministry official told the parliamentary standing committee on transport and tourism headed by JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha on Thursday India’s own fully functional satellite navigation system and technology are necessary to protect the privacy of citizens and ensure security of data. The official added that government won’t use any foreign navigational system for this purpose.
This comes even as road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has been maintaining that government would soon start the new toll collection system to do away with physical toll barriers and to bring relief to highway commuters. He has also said that the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) will ensure people pay for the exact distance travelled on a highway.
GNSS is a network of satellites that provides positioning, navigation, and timing services. Though India has Navigation with India Constellation (NavIC) system, there have been issues. Unlike GPS or Galileo, NavIC is a regional navigation system, meaning its coverage is restricted to India and nearby regions.
Sources told TOI that officials referred to the crashing of a plane last year for several reasons, including GNSS disruptions. They added that govt wants to ensure that the new tolling system uses India’s own navigation system.
Meanwhile, the recommendation of a high-powered committee set up by the road transport and highways ministry on the roll out of GNSS-based tolling is awaited for preparing the roadmap.
At present, the NHAI has started inviting tenders for the multi-lane free flow (MLFF) mechanism for toll collection. In MLFF tolling, there is no physical plaza as well. The tolling system consists of field equipment and sensors mounted on gantries, which capture information from passing vehicles. This data is transmitted to the electronic toll payment system for deduction of user fee from FASTag.