Toll Collection Takes the Electronic Route

Post of us who bear the brunt of waiting in long queues for toll payment on a
daily basis would be relieved to hear that the government is planning to
implement an electronic toll collection system across all the national highways.
The electronic toll collection (ETC) refers to a technology that allows the
electronic payment of highway tolls. ETC systems take advantage of
vehicle-to-roadside communication technologies (traditionally via microwave or
infrared communications, more recently via GPS technology) to perform an
electronic monetary transaction between a vehicle passing through a toll station
and the toll agency. A study in 2005 revealed that ETC systems reduce the
harmful emissions by 16% to 63% at toll plazas and also increase the toll lane
capacity.

The e-toll system will undoubtedly allow electronic money transactions
coupled with several other benefits such as better audit control and
transparency of toll transactions. This system will replace the manual toll
collection system and allow transactions even when the vehicles are traveling in
speed, thus enabling seamless travel by road users along the national highways.
Furthermore, as per the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the e-toll
mechanism will enhance user convenience leading to savings on fuel, reduce
repeated stops for vehicles, reduce traffic congestion and time to commute. The
e-toll system would process 2.5 times more vehicles on an average as compared to
the lanes where customers pay in cash.

The Blueprint

For this purpose, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has identified
three locationsPanipat-Jalandhar section of NH-1, Gurgaon-Jaipur section of
NH-8 and Surat-Dahisar section of NH-8 for the pilot project. The aim is to have
three different technologies such as 5.8 GHz Microwave (Passive), 5.8 GHz
Microwave (Active) and communication air-interface long and medium
range-infrared (CALM-IR) in three different sample toll systems.

For this purpose, the government has constituted a committee led by Unique
Identification Authority (UIDAI) chairman, Nandan Nilekani. According to the
committee, the challenge lies in deploying a cost effective, user friendly
technology that also confirms to international standards. As per the statistics,
India has about 71,000 km of national highways and toll is collected on only
8,500 km. So through the e-toll system, the government plans to increase this
coverage to 30,000 km in the next couple of years.

The committee has suggested the use of passive RFID tags in the form of
sticker pasted on the windshield of vehicles and this pan-India toll tag would
cost for Rs 100 for each vehicle. The process of discussion is on and the
government is in talks with possible technology partners, Society of Indian
Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), UIDAI to bring about an amalgamation of
expertise and technology. The government will also ask auto manufacturers to
install tags while making the vehicles. RFID readers installed at toll plazas
would cost Rs 2 lakh and it is expected to reduce monetary leakages by ensuring
transparency. "Discussion is still on regarding the selection of a suitable
technology and a technology partner. All depends on the requirements of the
governmentwhether it wants to specifically have a system that supports only
electronic toll collection or have a system that serves multiple purposes such a
traffic control, vehicle tracking, etc," says Vishnu Mathur, director general,
SIAM. Research says that the revenue leakage at present is at least 15% of the
toll collection, which comes to about Rs 300 crore.

The Pitfalls of E-tolls Technology

The Delhi-Noida toll bridge that uses infrared technology from Efkon is battered with the frequent discharging of the tags that are battery powered. To add to it, the tags keep transmitting signals irrespective of whether the vehicles are on the toll bridge or not. In case of fog and storm, the film on the vehicles glass gets clogged. Hence, the communication is hampered. The above situation points to the major concern of choosing the right kind of technology if NHAI wants to stay out of the clutches of a monopoly vendor as it has experienced with the DND flyway. Instead of going ahead with the technology specified in the tender, Microwave, NHAI decided to rope in Efkon as the technology partner and straightaway negated other ten vendors with infrared technology vying for the big contract. Following the cancellation, Kapschan Austrian ETC equipment company that uses microwave technologyis leading a fight against the use of infrared technology on the DND flyway. NHAI plans to set up an ETC plaza every 65 km on Indias highways. This means that the Golden Quadrilateralthe north-south-east-west corridor, and the remaining four phases of the National Highway Development Program (NHDP) present an opportunity for business worth Rs 2,000 crore over five to ten years. Henceforth, the parameter of interoperability across the toll plazas in the country on a uniform standard becomes important. If NHAI chooses infrared technology, it will have a single vendor option, Efkon. But, Microwave technology has a broad vendor base with at least ten major independent players in the market. A comparative study on both the technologies would give us a clear picture and assist us to choose the best technology amongst the two options. Infrared technology is based on light signals; microwave is based on radio signals. Moreover, infrared tags are one-and-a-half times more expensive than the microwave variety. The infrared tags used by the DND Flyway cost about Rs 2,500 each whereas the Microwave tags are expected to cost Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500. But, infrared does not have the infrastructure requirement that microwave has. Infrared is a light based technology and any obstruction such as fog, rain, trees, or even window films can make the detection difficult.

Apart from the use of RFID tags, the committee has also suggested a prepaid
system for toll collection. Following a similar mechanism of prepaid phones, the
vehicle owner can recharge the account of the vehicle and the toll amount will
get deducted from his account. Most importantly, to manage financial
transactions, a central toll clearing house (CTCH) has been proposed wherein a
suitable software will run at all toll gates. It will be connected to the
central house through WAN. The tag holders will be able to ask the account
details through web, email and mobile phones.

In terms of timelines, nationwide operations of the technology will begin by
May 2012. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will engage a suitable agency
by August 2010 for the preparation of the RFP document and engage an
international consultant for the implementation of ETC in India. The empaneled
consultant would prepare the blueprint which will cover the standards and
guidelines in addition to bid documents. Conduction of system acceptance testing
and providing technical assistance will also be done by the consultant.

Vishnu Mathur, director general, SIAM

How the System will Work

The RFID tags would ensure that a person can travel from Kashmir to
Kanyakumari without stopping anywhere. The idea is that when a car with a tag
passes through any toll booth across the country, the system will identify the
car and charge the appropriate toll. This system will prove effective in
tracking stolen vehicles. Currently this technology is used in some countries
like the USA, Canada, Argentina, Mexico and Chile.

Typically, an ETC has four major components: AVI (automatic vehicle
identification), AVC (automatic vehicle classification), transaction processing
and violation enforcement. The AVI enables the use of vehicle-to-roadside
communications to identify the vehicle. The AVC identifies the class of vehicles
through its physical attribute such as the number of axles. The transaction
process involves debiting toll from the customers account and addressing
queries. Violation enforcement includes cameras that capture the image of
license plates. The vehicle subsystem consists of an onboard unit (OBU) which
can either be a transponder or a RFID tag. Toll collection involves vehicle
detection, vehicle classification and toll collection. The back-office subsystem
is where the data storage, image processing, billing, accounting, violation
enforcement and customer servicing will take place.

A Hope-filled Conclusion

With the introduction of the e-toll system, the government is hopeful that
toll collection on national highways would jump five-fold to Rs 10,000 crore in
the next four years. The National Highways Authority of India could only collect
about Rs 3,500 crore in the last two financial years from 8,500 km of toll
highways. Hopefully with an effective system, the leakages will be plugged in
and toll collection would become the key instrument for the government to
attract private investments.

Atreyee Datta

atreyeed@cybermedia.co.in