No toll attendants will stop you between Mumbai and Delhi

People who have driven from Mumbai to Delhi and back understand the pain of stopping at each toll naka, pay the amount and then proceed. Sometimes you have to wait for a long time because some driver decided to argue with the toll attendants for no reason holing up the rest of the line. But this is about to change – credit the new government.

From today, you don’t need to stop at any of the toll plazas between Mumbai and Delhi to pay toll. All you need to have inside your car is radio frequency identification (RFID) that will be scanned as soon as you approach the dedicated ETC tag lane at the toll plazas. ETC has already been installed at 55 toll plazas and their integration with central clearing house (CCH) operators has almost been completed. A pilot project for Interoperable ETC system of 10 toll plazas between Mumbai (Charoti) and Ahmedabad has already been tested and seamless ETC on this section is successfully in operation. 

The central government has issued orders to incorporate ETC lanes as a mandatory clause in the contracts awarded for all the national highway projects in future. Action will be taken to include ETC system by making supplementary agreement in those projects which have not yet been started.

But what if you have an RFID tag but you find traffic on that lane? Don’t worry! The road transport ministry has a solution for that. It will penalise commuters who enter tag lanes without their vehicles having the tags so that others don’t face congestion while crossing plazas. These violators maybe asked to pay five times  the present toll rate. That’s a lot. Isn’t it?