[Samba]

The NHAI toll collectors will never want a car to skip a toll and go, how long the queue may be. If they leave this to their staffs, I doubt how much it's going to work.

They need to install some kind of a sensor which can detect the car queue, whether it has crossed the yellow line or not. If yes, that will automatically ensure the boom barrier to open up.

[GeeTee TSI]

If the toll operators are charged a penalty for the number of instances and extent of delay beyond the target, the onus falls on the toll operator to do whatever wizardry it takes (redirect, let some vehicles pass, or even jolt the staff into swiftly taking toll arguments away from the lanes) to keep the cars moving at any cost. Right now it does not pinch them in anyway when wait times increase

[DeeJay]

I travel weekly from Delhi to UP and encounter 3 tolls in my route. There is always at least one instance in every trip where a hand held reader needs to be used. There is usually only one or two readers that rotate between all the gates, so one has to wait till the reader is free, leading to waste of time.

Plus, there is often disagreements between toll workers and some vehicles asking for exemption, where the attitude is primarily to not let pass and collect instead of making them to fall out of the lane and settle, irrespective of number of cars that get stuck in lane.

Enforcement of 100m rule is also questionable at these plaza's in country's interiors when even the now defunct Delhi-Gurgaon toll never bothered low long the jam became.

[SJM1214]

I read somewhere, that 80 percent of all toll collected across national highways is through FASTag. If this is true then the above-mentioned guidelines are useless. If scanners are working properly then there is no need to spend even 10 seconds at the toll plaza.

[narayans80]

Alright now, who is going to bell this cat? Besides if you have long lines, freeing and stopping based on an arbitrary 100 meter metric will only call for arguments.

Originally Posted by haisaikat

NH Tolls cannot be unmanned simply because
1. Fastags scanners several times malfunction requiring manual scans using hand helds

Barring a few tolls, and these are regular offenders. I've had a largely seamless experience during my trips in December 2019 and later (this was when the majority Fastag lanes was implemented. I've crossed these under 10 seconds. The second point you mentioned is why most of the mess happens.

Originally Posted by mvadg

Scan Fastag multiple times at the entry line

Not many tolls have the real estate to have multiple scanners, exit lanes and stuff. I remember mentioning about this in some other thread, but can't remember where.

[BoneCollector]

This will never bear fruit at a few places, especially Kherki Daula toll on NH48 (NH8). They've already objected to it and have said that they can't implement it.

Kherki Daula Toll

[Sheel]

First of all, Government or NHAI should ensure that all toll gates are open and functioning, despite that, if there still is a queue, they should increase toll gates wherever possible.

I had complained of this few years back on Twitter, but as expected, nothing came out.

[Neversaygbye]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

We only respond to threats and penalties. So unless the toll operators are penalised, this will never work.

We also respond to incentives. So why not have both to make this happen? Penalize the operator if average wait time goes beyond a certain number and incentivize if it is within a certain number. (I have also felt that instead of charging double for cash transactions, they should double the tolls and give a 50% discount for FastTags. No more haggling with the operator, since the charge will be on the board, and a great incentive to get a tag)

However, while this policy of 10 seconds max wait time looks great on paper, I am really not sure how it will be implemented. Also, a 10 second wait time is impractical based on the current system of boom barriers and hit and miss tag readers. On multiple occasions I have had to go back and forth in front of the booth to find the sweet spot where the reader would read the tag.

So this policy shows great intent, but it is impractical in terms of execution. Call me a cynic, but I don't think anything is going to change at our toll plazas.

[haldar_siliguri]

No matter how many rules are passed or solutions discussed on this forum, at the end of the day there will always be the politicians, local goons, and other random people who WILL just not pay and cause arguments and traffic pile ups at booths.

The rest of us will be stuck in traffic behind them, cursing the system.

[Ravi Parwan]

india is a land of dichotomy, everyone wants convenience yet majority want to shirk their responsibility. The toll problem is something that does not require too much thinking since it has already been solved abroad.

1. Ensure every car approaching the fast tag lane has a fast tag. The car manufacturers give a tag bundled with the car. Make sure that the car comes loaded with fast tag from the dealership and the card is loaded with 1000 bucks as part of the registration charges.
For older cars, use the cameras on the toll booth to send a challan to cars passing without a fast tag or having a fast tag without balance.

2. remove the manual collectors. Just have 2-3 supervisors for manual intervention initially for cases where cars get stuck. In those cases, if the car has a working fast tag with sufficient balance, make it a rule to allow that car to pass without paying the toll, since the toll operator's machinery is not able to read the tag. For any discrepancy/ deficit from the car owner side, challan them in the mail.

3. The onus of collecting toll should be on the operator. Imagine if the toll operator has to foot the bill for all cars that don't pay, they will overnight ensure their machinery is working. Why do they have faulty readers in the first place? if they are not spending on maintenance and upkeep of the machinery that is generating revenue for them, where are they spending the money?

4. Once all cars using toll roads have fast tags, remove the barriers. Let the cars pass through with any fast tags not detected to be send invoice and challan over email/ post.

On a side note - On faridabad-delhi toll at Badarpur, I have been billed several times for the same journey, sometimes within 2 min of each other. I noticed this recently and have raised a concern with PayTM. This has happened twice in the last 2 months. I haven't checked back further. Has anyone also faced this issue at this particular toll?

[nitishk]

Like many have said above, the barriers need to go and the sensors need to be strong enough.
Here in SG we have electronic tolls for ages now, no one is exempt. Privileged people get refunds from their office.Simple solution,has been working flawlessly for years now.

[ashishy]

So this is incentivizing troublemaker motorists to simply argue at the booth knowing that if they manage to create a queue, they will be let go free of charge!

[low_rider]

My simple question is that once we pay the road tax, why do we separately need to pay the tolls. Has any Government provided the figures for how much road tax was collected and how much of it is actually spent against road construction (including highways).

And, coming to rules, there are so many if them. But what can you do if they are not implemented. Does someone have to specifically lodge a complaint or will there be an automatic monitoring mechanism which uses CCTV and generates a penalty challan for the toll provider as per the 100 meter mark.

What if the mark itself is placed at 200 meters. Are you going to measure it and submit a documentary proof to NHAI and follow up a legal battle to bring it to conclusion.

These are just good feelers aimed to deliver a perception that the Govt (whichever party) is doing something for your welfare. Chill and move on.

[yd_gli]

There are no technical changes to hinder the implementation of unmanned tolls that haven’t been solved yet by the Western powers. One trip to any of the US tollways by our esteemed NHAI executives and they will know how the world works. And it is not by implementing asinine 10s rules. The whole Fastag thing is half assed and has enough loopholes to ensure that toll companies continue to harass citizens. The golden rule of tag scanning in any setting (railway platform tickets, airline boarding, highway tolls) is that the flow of people/traffic must not be disturbed. Why is it so hard for our leaders to understand this?

Every toll booth has a different mechanism implemented for Fastag. There are no uniform installation systems. I have seen instances of the sensor mounted on a bamboo stick!! 50% of the times, the sensor doesn’t register the tag and the operators are running helter shelter through traffic with a hand held scanner. There are so many suggestions on this thread itself that can solve most of the current problems but the NHAI is busy re-inventing the wheel.

[silverado]

This news is good for some Memes. NHAI can actually open a shopping mall at Khed Shivapur Toll Naka, anyone from Pune/Mumbai would know what i am speaking of