BANGALORE: If all goes well with a pilot project soon to be adopted by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) at their toll road between Delhi and Panipat, toll road users all over the country will be able to buy a RFID (Radio Frequency ID) chip for their vehicles and get it loaded from four major banks in the country and pass through toll booths without stopping. Announcing the pilot project on Thursday, Director General (Road Development), C Kandasamy, stated that the pilot project will take off soon and that the technology would spread to more than 250 toll booths across the country, which would feature a special lane for vehicles with the RFID chip. “Four per centre of the toll collected will be enough to set up at least one lane at around 250 toll plazas. Banks will be able to fill in balance and the user can check online,” said Kandasamy.
He added that currently NHAI was working on interoperability amongst various toll roads as some of them already have technology in place but restrict the services to just one project. On the choice of RFID technology he said that it was a choice of the Nilekani Committee after considering other options like active Dedicated Smart Range Communication (DSRC) and Passive DSRC.
Also on the topic of speed breakers and speed limits on National Highways, Kandasamy said that policies did not allow for any speed breakers to be put up on national highways.
“We are thinking of adding different textures to help the commuters identify upcoming intersections,” he said adding that all national highways were built for a minimum of 80kmph and a maximum speed of 100 kmph.