Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that India will do away with toll booths within a year and instead implement Global Positioning System (GPS)-based toll collection.

Speaking during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gadkari said that wanted to assure the House that all physical toll booths in the country would be removed within a year. This will mean that the collection of toll will happen via GPS. The toll at highways will be collected based on GPS imaging on vehicles. 

The Union minister further added that 93 per cent of the vehicles paid toll using FASTag. However, the remaining 7 per cent of vehicles had still not taken FASTag despite paying a double toll, he mentioned.

Mr Gadkari said that he had instructed the police to inquire about those vehicles which did not pay toll using FASTags. There were cases of toll theft as well as cases of GST evasion if FASTags were not fitted in vehicles, he noted.

FASTag, which enables electronic payment of fee at toll plazas, was introduced in 2016. From February 16, 2021, vehicles that are without FASTags are required to pay double the toll fee amount at electronic toll plazas. Making the FASTags mandatory on vehicles would also help in ensuring that vehicles pass seamlessly through the toll plazas at highways as the payment of the fee would be electronically done.

FASTag is a tag or a sticker pasted usually on a car’s windscreen. It utilises Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to communicate with the scanner that is installed at toll plaza,. When the vehicle passes the toll plaza, the requisite toll fee is automatically deducted from a bank account or a prepaid wallet linked to the FASTag.