New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government intends to replace the toll booths on the nation’s roadways with cameras that automatically deduct tolls. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is moving forward with a proposal to replace toll booths with Automatic Number Plate Reader (ANPR) cameras which can scan number plates, union minister Nitin Gadkari told The Indian Express in an interview.
According to Gadkari, the government established a rule requiring all vehicles to have company-installed license plates starting in 2019
“In 2019, we made a rule that cars will come with company-fitted number plates. So, the vehicles that have come in the last four years have different number plates. Now, the plan is to remove toll plazas and put cameras, which will read these number plates and toll will be deducted from the account directly. We are also doing a pilot of this scheme, Gadkari told The Indian Express.
“However, there is one problem — there is no provision under the law to penalize the vehicle owner who skips the toll plaza and does not pay. We need to bring that provision under the law. We may bring in a provision for cars that do not have these number plates to get them installed within a certain period of time. We will need to bring in a Bill for this,” he added.
Why Is New Plan Being Implemented? How Will It Work?
Even though 5.56 billion FASTags have been distributed and 96.6% of tolling is being done electronically, there is still a problem with traffic at toll booths on national highways.
Earlier in August, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told the Rajya Sabha that the government intends to put a stop to the difficulties that toll plazas have caused, including traffic jams and lengthy line
Members had questioned him on the issue of toll plazas within 60 miles of each other, which is against the law.
ANPR cameras are the new remedy the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has discovered.
Entry and departure points for toll highways will have cameras. These cameras will scan license plates and deduct the toll from the owners of the vehicles’ bank accounts automatically.
Only number plates produced after 2019 will, however, be detected by cameras
The government is planning to come up with a scheme to change old number plates with new ones in the process.
