Norms to pay only for road used soon

Travellers may soon pay only for the stretch of national highway they use instead of a general toll fee and the government is working on an intelligent transport management system for that, Road Transport and Highways Secretary Yudhvir Singh Malik said on Thursday. "Instead of keeping a close toll policy, let us get in place an opening tolling policy through intelligent transport management system so that you the pay the toll only for the stretch of the road that you use," he said.

"We are soon coming out with the policy and within a year or so we should be able to put that in place," he said at an event organised here by industry chamber PHDCCI. Many countries like US, Australia have been doing trials on the distance-based electronic tolling. Malik also said a roll-on, roll-off (Ro-Ro) ferry has been planned for Surat "to other side of Gujarat", which will save about 600700 km, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Rs 615 crore RoRo ferry service last week.

Speaking at the event, Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani said the bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai covering the 508km stretch in under three hours would be completed by 2022. "We are also looking at a number of other high speed rail corridors,” he said.

Many countries like US, Australia have been doing trials on the distance-based electronic tolling, which India is also mulling to implement