FASTag stares at end of the road as GPS toll testing set to begin

livemint.com:

The Centre plans to begin testing GPS-based toll collections on five to 10 highways from next month, a top government official said. GPS tolling, which is faster and more efficient, is expected to ultimately replace the existing FASTag-based tolling system. The new system will be piloted on limited highway stretches before it is rolled out nationwide, roads ministry secretary Anurag Jain said.

“Highway developer National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on satellite- or GPS-based tolling that would introduce a more equitable way of collecting tolls on highways. There are a few concerns on the new system that would be addressed and the learnings from initial projects would make way for devising a foolproof system of tolling that would later be available on more and more highway stretches," Jain said. Under the new system, toll will be collected on the go, ending the need for dedicated toll plazas.

This will require geofencing of highways using global positioning system (GPS) or radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies to create a virtual geographic boundary, which would enable the software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves the fenced-off area. So, under GPS-based tolling, vehicles will need to be fitted with a device that can track their movement, and toll will be charged based on the distance travelled at the exit point of a highway. This will allow commuters to pay a lower toll if the distance travelled is less, unlike the present system where tolls have to be paid for a fixed distance at toll plazas even if the vehicle has to exit after a shorter distance.