During the ongoing Budget session in the Parliament, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday, 18 March said that India will eliminate toll booths and implement complete GPS-based toll collection within a year.
During Question Hour in Lok Sabha, Gadkar said, "I want to assure the House that within one year all physical toll booths in the country will be removed. It means that toll collection will happen via GPS. The money will be collected based on GPS imaging (on vehicles)."
He informed that even though 93 percent of the vehicles employ FASTag to pay toll, the remaining 7 percent still don’t use the service despite paying a double toll.
There have been cases of toll theft and GST evasion if FASTags are not fitted in vehicles, he said.
FASTags were introduced in 2016 to facilitate electronic payment at toll plazas. Vehicles across the country that to do not have FASTag were required to pay double fee at electronic toll stops from 16 February.
Gadkari also said that new vehicles have FASTags installed in them, while the government said that it will give free FASTags for old vehicles.
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