Nitin Gadkari: Will remove all toll booths within a year, take collections via GPS

The government will remove toll booths across the country within a year and carry out collections through GPS imaging on vehicles instead, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said Thursday.

“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),” Gadkari said in the Lok Sabha. His announcement came in response to a question raised by BSP’s Danish Ali, who complained about toll booths in Ganamukteshwar in Hapur district. Ali said that instead of the norm of toll booths at 60-km intervals on national highways, his constituency has two booths within 40 km.

Gadkari said: “I know in some places there are too many toll booths. Its wrong and unfair. We have decided to get rid of them.”

“There used to be lot of theft in this. Our income from toll tax used to be Rs 24,000 crore per year, but during Covid time, it was Rs 10,000 crore lower. But we have implemented FASTag,” he said.

The FASTag system, which facilitates electronic payment of fee at toll plazas, was introduced in 2016.

Gadkari said 93 per cent of existing vehicles pay toll using FASTag, but the remaining section had still not adopted it despite having to pay double toll. “It looks like they don’t want to leave a record. Now, I have called a police inquiry.”