For the first time, the NHAI is teaming up with a bank to collect tolls on a highway. This is a big change in how tolls will be managed in India.
NHAI is looking for bids to choose a bank for the country’s first multi-lane free flow (MLFF) toll system on a recently opened stretch of road.
What Is New?
The MLFF toll section won’t have any physical toll booths. Instead, it will use sensors and equipment mounted on overhead structures to track vehicles as they pass by. This info will be sent to an electronic system to automatically deduct the toll from drivers. There won’t be any toll collectors on site, and the banks that can offer the highest revenue share will get the rights to manage the tolling.
Where Will You Find The First-Ever MLFF?
A new 28-km urban expressway will cut down the travel time between Delhi and Gurgaon, and it will have only one toll point on the Delhi-Gurgaon border, 9 km from Delhi. Only the vehicles passing through this toll point will pay, though the government has not decided the toll amount yet.
The winner of the tolling rights shall get the contract for three years. During the initial three months from the day of being handed over with the contract, it will be the responsibility of the winner to develop the collection system of toll. In the direction of the same IHMCL, which acts as the tolling arm of NHAI, would provide an option for getting sub-let the same as it does not hold experience in the direct toll collection.
NHAI Allows Banks to Hire Subcontractors for Toll Collection
The experience of tolling has come as a surprise to them, so they want permission from NHAI to enlist subcontractors. NHAI has said it would make it possible by making proper regulations. This came while IHMCL-the company’s tolling arm-injected a clause while opening technical tenders and expressions of interest that the experience of working with subcontractors and at Multi-Lane Free Flow must be of minimum 10 years and there must also be an experience in applying MLFF for a span of 200km to be covered with this in both India and the international areas.
NHAI wants to add MLFF systems along more highways in a bid to decongest and reduce pollution. “Since banks are regulated by RBI, they will follow a more transparent system and there will be no leakage of revenue,” said an official.
