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-   -   E Toll collection : Will it work in India? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/12768-e-toll-collection-will-work-india.html)

Canada has what it likes to call the worlds most conviniant and advanced toll highway. You pay a toll to drive on the highway but there are no toll booths anywhere on the road which means you never stop at a toll collection point saving precious fuel and time and adding to conviniance which is the USP of a tolled highway. This is done in two ways but either way overhead gantry's along all entry and exit points record the vehicle:

1. For regular users there is a transponder to be leased annually which drivers attach to the windshield. Everytime you drive on the highway, overhead gantry's record your entry and exit point and automatically add the amount to your bill which is mailed monthly. The address is known from details entered electronically into the transponder.

2. For non-regular users all you have to do is drive on the road normally. Overhead gantry's record the entry and exit points, take pictures of the licence plate from which the address of the driver is collected and a bill is mailed to the person for payment.

The picture of the overhead gantry



For more Info: 407ETR.com

Needless to add the conviniance of this system is huge and undeniable. Apparently many countries are studying this system of toll collection to implement it on their own roadways. The billion rupee question is Will such a system work in India? Maybe the government can do a trial on the Mumbai-Pune expressway with such a system. The benefits are obviously huge.

1. No need to slow down or stop at toll booths resulting in precious saving of time and fuel.
2. Conviniance

The system as is in use in Canada cannot be used in India. The whole thing has to be Indianized.

1. Mailing the bill every month is not going to result in collection. Sad part is luxury car owners also resort to such cheap tricks. Solution: Adopt the western method of renewing licence plates annually. Any unpaid tolls can then be added to the cost of renewal. The current system of one time tax can be switched to a monthly system.

2. Also, maybe they can do away with the system of clicking pictures of licence plates because people live someplace else and register cars in another place. Either have a standard system of taxation to counter this or some other solution can be found. Maybe only the transponders can be used in India.

3. Another major problem will be unemployment. What will all those people working right now in toll collection booths do if such a system is installed? Maybe government can buy emergency vehicles and have them patrol the highways to help people in distress or in need of emergency and this is where these people can be employed. The 407ETR for example provides help to people who have run out of gas or have a flat tyre. With the murders and robberies taking place on the expressway, these guys can be used to constantly patrol the highway 24X7 to counter that.

There are problems but solutions as well. Regular Mumbai to Navi Mumbai drivers, imagine a day where all you do is drive straight to work or home without ever stopping to pay tolls. No traffic line up's , no car in front of you giving a Rs. 500 note to pay a toll of Rs. 25, no driver arguing with the toll collector and insisting for some reason on not paying the toll (yes it's happened in front of me) and no driver trying to speed up and escape the toll collection.

Some more pictures of the 407ETR

Highway 400 and 407ETR



Highway 401 and 407ETR



Emergency Roadside Assistance



Yea I know we need smooth roads like that first!

We have this in Chicago too. Its called open road tolling (I-pass).Here we need to charge my trasponder in advance and my credit card is automatically billed when its time to recharge. No mailing the bill here, coz they know people wont pay up.

There is also a manual booth for people who are not regular commuters. BUt they made it cheaper to use the I-pass to encourage people to use it and cut down on backups.

In India, its workable, but since people are so keen on beating the system, it will be a pain to enforce.

i personally have my doubts that this will work..in india most people will find a way to avoid the bill..

Not only that, but i am willing to bet that the cameras themselves will get stolen within a month. Add to this, the authorities will inevitably carry out a shoddy job while installing the system on the roads and we'll see it lying by the roadside during heavy wind/rain. Personally, i dont think we have the mentality required for this sort of system to work.

Also we dont have all the information electronically available. Most of the information available with transport offices will be outdated, so there wont be any tracability. Most of the times then the bill will reach wrong people. Think this will take another 10 years in India for these kind of infrastructure although we are making good progress in many areas.

Deepu

It is quite possible that we will see something like this on the Bandra-Worli sea link for the regular commuters. Though probably not on all the lanes.

cya
R

Unfortunetly this type of system won't work in India.

amit, you have given 3 reasons here is another one

If people don't pay monthly bill then what guarantees they will pay yearly tax?
As Deeps mentioned camera's will get stolen. (one month too long if you ask me)
Since there will be no stopping which will mean racing for people, resulting in increase in number of accidents.

Hey Adya, people wouldn't be able to drive if they don't have renewed licence plates. They will be pulled over and will have to renew the plates with a big fine or something. But then can we trust the traffic hawaldars to implement this rule strictly? We may have 100% of cars in the city moving about with expired licence plates and the traffic guys will soon start buying Laura's and Accords! But think guys, there has to be a way out. I know it's easy to see the impossiblity of the implementation but there has to be a fool proof way to implement this.

Good point about the camera's getting flicked. But if you see the pics the camera's are mounted quite high above the roads. Theives will need special cranes mounted on a tata 407 to rob them. Wouldn't be easy to arrange all this and then to rob the camera's with cars zipping by. Also wouldn't the guys robbing the camera's themselves be clicked and their pics will be transmitted to the central monitoring station.

here we have people not paying income tax and getting away with it. what chance does number plate system stands?
Besides how will traffic police know if the license plate is renewed or not?
there needs to be a central computerised database.
As for pulling over on highway, cops can do it right now too. They have speed gun but everyone and I do mean everyone breaks speed limit.
As for camera stealing, remember this is Indian people we are talking about if they can't steal it then they will use it for practising their throwing skills.
Also with the fancy number plates people using (fancy font, unreadable colours, different language) it will be very very difficult to monitor.

so basically one reason for the toll booths is to keep stopping people so that they don't splash their heads out on roads.
I am sure we need more devices like this. lol:

Or you can use what DND uses for gold lanes. The barrier lifts automatically if it detects that the cars prepaid transponder has enough cash. For everybody else the lines will be necessary.
For it to work, there has to be a common toll card which can be used on any NHAI highway in India. Wont work the west way, but we can always modify things to our needs.

I have seen similar toll collection booths in Manila, Philippines. Both the North and South Luzon Expressways use the electronic toll collection method. Its called e-pass here.

Vehicles can buy this card (e-pass) and it has certain amount on it. Like the pre paid mobiles. Everytime the vehicles enters or exits the expressway a sensor placed at the toll booth records it and the amount applicable for the journey is deducted. The card can be recharged at normal stores.
That sounds sismilar to any electronic toll booth right. But here comes the indianised version. At each entry/exit to the expressway, there are separate toll booths with gates, for e-pass customers and cash/card customers. The e-pass booth is much faster and only customers with e-pass can go thru them.

I will try to get pictures of the toll booths. This could be used in India. There is no passing unless you pay and their is no wading pay as it is prepaid..

i jus had to open this thread coz the pessimism was dripping out of it by the bucketloads!

Lets take it point by point:
1. Cameras will get stolen: Even the ones that are located high above the road on the overhead highway signs? with only a small 1 inch lens visible?

2. People will cheat the system: So waddaya say, eh? lets not have it? Great! People dont pay income tax also!! Lets get rid of that as well!! *though i will be happy if someone does that!!*

3. Not enough data: Where this system exists, a modern day Moses went up a hill and came down with ten huuuge disks of data!

In case u guys didnt notice Tsk's post, something similar to e toll already exists on the DND flyover.

@amit : In and around Boston, its called EZPass.

Cheers
Amitoj

Planning is one thing. Implementation another. The discipline to maintain the system with consistency yet another!

We have the first. Now we need the second and third. IMHO, its the third factor thats the most difficult.

GTO