First automated toll facility in Rourkela-Sambalpur road soon

The Odisha government has decided to digitise toll collection on roads in line with guidelines issued by the central government. The facility will be used for the first time in Sambalpur-Rourkela road widening project, currently under construction.

"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," said Nalinikanta Pradhan, secretary, state works department, at the inaugural session of Indian Road Congress (IRC) workshop here.

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.

In this process, vehicles with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can pass through digitised toll gates without stopping and the sensors installed in the gates will send data to a centralised server to deduct payments from the bank account of the vehicle owner. E-tolling was implemented for the first time in Mumbai-New Delhi highway in November last year. The new government at the Centre has already amended the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989, for installation RFID tags on vehicles. Till the e-tolling system is fully operational in Sambalpur-Rourkela road project, manual collection of tolls will continue. Vehicles with RFID tags will have to go through a specified lane for online payment of toll dues, added Pradhan.

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.

As per the work order, L & T IDPL has to complete the road construction process within three years and can collect tolls on it up to 2035. Out of the Rs 1,292.56 crore estimated cost of the project, 35 per cent would be borne by the Centre and the state on a ratio of 20 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. This viability gap funding has reduced the investment burden for L & T to Rs 465.30 crore. The existing two-lane road between Sambalpur and Rourkela linking National Highway-23 in the north and NH-6 in the south was also developed by L&T in 1997 with financial assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB).