Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the government is considering introducing monthly and annual passes for private vehicles in lieu of toll collection on national highways as their share in the total collection is only 26 per cent. Addressing an event, Gadkari said toll collection booths will be set up outside villages so that the movement of villagers is not hampered. "74 per cent of toll revenue comes from commercial vehicles. We are considering introducing monthly or annual passes for private vehicles," the minister said.

Private vehicles account for 26% of total toll collection

He said since the share of private vehicles in total toll collection is only 26 per cent, there will be no loss to the government. Gadkari said the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to implement a barrier-free Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based toll collection system as an additional facility along with FASTag on national highways initially. "The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based toll collection system will be better than the current toll collection system," he said.

Toll will not take much time

In July last year, Gadkari had said that a pilot study has been carried out on Bengaluru-Mysuru section of National Highway (NH)-275 in Karnataka and Panipat-Hisar section of NH-709 in Haryana regarding GNSS based user fee collection system. The move is aimed at reducing traffic congestion and charging based on the exact distance travelled on highways. The average waiting time for vehicles at toll plazas during FY 2018-19 was eight minutes. With the introduction of FASTag during FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, the average waiting time of vehicles has come down to 47 seconds. Although the waiting time has improved significantly at some places, especially in densely populated towns near cities, there are still some delays at toll plazas during peak hours.