In order to reduce waiting time at the toll plazas, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued guidelines to ensure service time of not more than 10 seconds per vehicle even at peak hours at the toll plazas on the National Highways.
The new set of guidelines will also ensure seamless flow of traffic at the toll plazas by not allowing vehicles to queue up more than 100 metres.
Mandatory use of FASTag in vehicles has brought down the waiting time in most of the toll plazas. However, even if there is a queue of waiting vehicles of more than 100 metres due to some reason, the vehicles will be allowed to pass without paying toll till the queue comes within 100 meters from the toll booth, the new guidelines say.
For this purpose, a yellow line at a distance of 100 meters from the toll booth will be marked in each toll lane. This is to inculcate further sense of accountability in toll plaza operators.
Since NHAI has successfully transitioned to 100% cashless tolling from mid of Feb 2021, the overall FASTag penetration in NHAI Toll Plazas has reached 96% and many toll plazas have 99% penetration.
To ensure an efficient toll collection system, NHAI has emphasised on a new design, and has suggested that the upcoming toll plazas be constructed as per traffic projections for next 10 years.