The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has come up with new toll rules with the aim to reduce waiting time at toll plazas across the nation.
According to the new guidelines, which were issued recently, toll operators have to ensure that the service time for a vehicle at the booth does not exceed 10 seconds. This rule is applicable even during peak hours.
Further, toll operators have also been instructed to not allow vehicles to queue up. If the queue of waiting vehicles crosses 100 metres, all of the vehicles within 100 metres from the toll booth will be allowed to pass without paying the toll fee.
A yellow line denoting the 100 metre distance will be marked at each toll lane across all of the toll plazas in the country, states NHAI. Earlier, the marking distance was supposed to vary for each plaza based on the traffic flow and number of lanes.
The new NHAI toll rules have been put into effect to ensure seamless flow of traffic at toll plazas across the nation and to also inculcate a sense of accountability in toll plaza operators, says the agency.
According to NHAI, since it transitioned to 100 percent cashless tolling from the middle of February this year, FASTag penetration at toll plazas has reached 96 percent overall, while at some booths it is at 99 percent.
Due to the growing Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) penetration in the country, the government highways agency also wants future toll plazas to have a new design which takes into account traffic projections for the next 10 years for an efficient toll collection system.
