No barriers: Delhi's Dwarka Expressway to become first highway with ‘Free Flow Tolling’ system

NEW DELHI: In the next few months, the Dwarka Expressway will have a "Free Flow Tolling" system, making the highway the first in the country without physical toll plazas or barriers.

Advanced FASTag readers, which can scan tags fixed on vehicles even if they are moving at 100 kmph, and high-power cameras to read registration numbers will be installed on overhead gantries across lanes for deducting toll amounts automatically.

TOI has learnt that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is preparing the proposal to be implemented in this 28-km urban expressway.

It will give an insight into the compliance aspect and also to prepare the roadmap for better implementation of satellite-based tolling, sources said.

Multi-lane free-flow tolling is being used in many countries for faster and hassle-free collection of user fee. This eliminates traffic pile up.

Though gantry-based tolling is being done on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, there is a toll plaza in Meerut to check the payment of user fee.

In the case of the Dwarka Expressway, there will be no toll plazas. The NHAI is also looking at passive mechanisms to recover unpaid toll.

On the expressway, the gantry for tolling will be put on the Delhi-Gurgaon border. The NHAI and the road transport ministry are yet to take a call on the toll charge that will applicable on this corridor.

Meanwhile, the NHAI has urged the ministry to make changes in the Vahan system, a repository of registered vehicles, to recover unpaid toll from vehicles with no FASTag or faulty/ blacklisted tags.

It has also proposed to add a section - 'unpaid user fee due' - in the Vahan portal to display the due amount similar on the lines of 'unpaid traffic challans'.

The Vahan portal would display the due amount and the vehicle's photo for evidence when the owner logs in, the NHAI has proposed.

As per a proposal, such vehicle owners would not be allowed to transfer registration or get NoC and fitness certificate without clearing the dues. Vehicle owners will have the option to pay the dues or raise objections to the notice within seven days.