The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is all set to introduce smart cards for highway commuters by the month of April, this year and will begin to install it in vehicles. Like the Metro smart card for the passengers, the highway cards will reduce the waiting time and also offer upto 10 per cent concession in the first year which will be reduced to 7.5 per cent and 5 per cent in the subsequent years.
The electronic tolling mechanism, which got failed earlier at the very early phase, has been remodelled and the advanced hardware are being installed on the toll plazas by the government.
A highway ministry official told that the objective of reducing congestion can be achieved only if at least 60-70 per cent of the vehicles are fitted with smart tags. He also promoted the use of these smart tags by disclosing a provision of concession to the users.
The traditional way of paying toll taxes in the form of cash has been the main reason to increase the congestion at the toll plazas. Now under the new e-tolling system, users can recharge their highway smart cards same as metro passengers do while using metrocards, and the amount will be automatically deduced as per the usage.
