By Our Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, January 18, 2015

Odisha government will digitise toll collection on roads and the facility will be used for the first time in Sambalpur-Rourkela road widening project which is currently under construction.

Nalinikanta Pradhan, secretary, state works department, at the inaugural session of Indian Road Congress (IRC) workshop said here, “The process of toll collection through smart card will be used in the Sambalpur-Rourkela road, which is being constructed on PPP mode. The idea is to wipe out the manual toll collection gradually. Once the travellers get used with the system, we will use it in all other roads of the state.”

Automated toll collection system was first conceptualised in 2008 by a committee headed by Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI) to use information technology in toll collection to avoid under reporting of collections.

Pradhan said a radio frequency identification (RFID) smart card will be installed on the windscreen. The card reader installed at the toll gates would automatically read the card and deduct the toll amount, he said.

Vehicles having such facility will not have to stop at the toll gates which will open automatically when they approach the toll plaza. If any vehicle speeds through the gate without paying, it will be heavily penalised. The card reader will provide details of the vehicles which will be passed on to the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) for necessary action.

Sambalpur-Rourkela road widening project is developed by L & T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd (L&T IDPL). Though the company had signed the concession agreement for the project in November 2013 on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, work order agreement was signed in July last year.