The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will execute a pilot project to study the implementation of the “pay as you use” tolling system in the country. It involves the setting up of a satellite-based electronic toll collection system using global positioning system (GPS)/global system for mobile communications (GSM) technology for around 500 commercial vehicles on the Delhi-Mumbai national highway. The project will be undertaken for a year. Using the combination of GSM and satellite-based GPS, the proposed tolling system would be able to deduct money from a vehicle account, credit the money to the concessionaire within a day and open the toll gate. In case of a failed transaction, it would be able to alert the toll operator to collect the payment manually and not open the gate. The pilot project also aims to integrate the new solution with the existing prepaid wallet account offered by NHAI under the FASTag programme. It will also compare the distance-based tolling system and the existing tolling system, as well as virtual and normal tolling. The request for proposal for the project has already been floated and the last date for submission of bids is February 26, 2018.
The central government has signed a loan agreement worth $250 million with ADB for the construction of 6,254 km of all-weather rural roads in the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal under the prime minister’s Rural Roads Programme. The first tranche of the loan is a part of the $500 million Second Rural Connectivity Investment Programme for India approved by ADB in December 2017. The programme is aimed at improving rural connectivity, facilitating safer and more efficient access to livelihood and socio-economic opportunities for rural communities through improvements to about 12,000 km rural roads across the five states.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has laid the foundation stone for four projects and inaugurated one project near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The total estimated cost of the projects is Rs 56.32 billion. The project entailing the four-laning of the 41.34 km section of National Highway (NH)-27 at a cost of Rs 7.75 billion has been inaugurated. The projects for which foundation stones were laid are the six-laning of the 53.15 km Handiya-Aurai section of NH-2, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 18.13 billion; Phase I of the four-lane, 15 km Puramufti-Kaudihar Allahabad inner ring road, to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 8.3 billion; and the 17.77 km section of NH-96 from the Allahabad bypass to Allahabad city, to be undertaken at an estimated cost of Rs 3.14 billion. In addition, the foundation stone for a new six-lane bridge over the Ganga river at Fafamau, Allahabad, was also laid. It will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 19 billion. Meanwhile, the MoRTH also plans to build highways worth Rs 2 trillion in Uttar Pradesh by end-2019.