People in vicinity of toll plazas to be exempted from paying tax: Gadkari

NEW DELHI: Union road transport and highway minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that with the new arrangement — GPS or Vehicle Number Recognition System (VNRS) based toll collection — to be launched soon, people living in the vicinity of the toll plaza would not need to pay a user fee.    

“It is unjustified, unlawful and not good. In the new system, which we are going to launch, we will see that the city area will be eliminated and there will be no charge on the people because they are taking only 10 kilometres (kms) of the road and are paying (toll) for 75 kms. That is absolutely wrong. But that is not my problem and it happened during the previous government. We will rectify the thing,” said the minister in Rajya Sabha.

He was responding to the concerns expressed about toll collection from locals and setting up of a fee booth inside the city limits by MPs during Question Hour.Congress MP Jebi Mather also raised the issue of two toll plazas located within a distance of 60 kilometres, which is not permitted.

Gadkari said that the Government is working on a plan to replace existing toll levying system with either GPS enabled or VNRS based fee collection and after selection of the technology and supporting legislation, the new arrangement might come into effect in six months.

“We are looking for two options. Satellite based system; there will be a GPS in the car and toll will directly be deducted from the bank account. And the other is a number plate (vehicle registration) based computer system which will use software. It will register entry and exit points and toll will be charged for the actual distance travelled. Within a month, we will select the best technology after which there will be no queue and traffic jams at toll plazas,” the minister stated.