Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari Tuesday said that the country can expect to save Rs.86,000 crore annually after electronic toll collection (ETC) system becomes operational pan-India by December.Gadkari, who was addressing an awards ceremony organised by Ficci (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry), quoted a study conducted by IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Kolkata.The study showed that delays at toll plazas resulted in thousands of crore worth of losses in terms of fuel wastage, while vehicle is waiting to pay toll at the collection point.The ETC systems have already been installed at 123 plazas, while the systems are expected to be operational across 350 toll plazas by December-end.It is expected that the average waiting time of 10 minutes per vehicle at every toll plaza would be substantially reduced after complete employment of ETC systems across India.
In September, the government had launched India's first ETC programme under the brand name "FASTag".
he ministry had roped in ICICI bank and Axis bank for providing central clearing house (CCH) services and to distribute RFID (radio-frequency identification)-based "FASTag" through their franchises at points of sales near the toll plazas. Similar type of highway tag brands are common in developed countries and are known by different names like "Eazee Pass", "SunPass" in the US, "e-Pass" in Australia, and "Salik" in Dubai.In October, the first ETC system on Delhi-Mumbai highway was launched and the facility is expected to be extended to as many as 350 plazas by the end of next year.