DNA Explainer: New toll policy to be levy fee on basis of size, impact on road; small car owners may pay less | Photo: File
According to the new toll policy, you may only be required to pay low toll fees on highways and expressways if you drive a smaller automobile that causes less wear and tear on the road. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will release a new toll policy the following year after a significant revision of the current one.
The size of your car and its capacity to exert stress on the road infrastructure will influence how much you pay as a toll while travelling on national highways under the new policy. A new GPS-based toll system will be included in the new toll policy along with other factors, including vehicle size-type, and impact on the road infrastructure.
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The current policy sets tolls on fixed road distances, as opposed to a policy where tolls are based on actual time and distance travelled on highways. The concept of evaluating the toll depending on the size of the train will differ from the current method, as the toll is currently charged based on a fixed distance.
Taxi to be levied on the basis of the vehicle’s size
The actual time spent on the roadway and the distance covered will serve as the basis for toll collection under the new toll policy. To assess how much space a car takes up on the road and how much load it creates on a road, tolls will be collected based on the size of the vehicle.
The guiding idea would be how much space a vehicle takes up on the road and how much strain it places on the infrastructure, which might cause the roads to damage more quickly.
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How will the pressure on the road by vehicles be calculated?
According to the official, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is considering whether to embrace the new method, and before it is implemented countrywide, pilot programmes may be launched on a few forthcoming greenfield expressway projects, including the Delhi-Mumbai route.
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has also requested that IIT BHU compute the most recent Passenger Car Unit (PCU) for a variety of cars operating on roads and highways as part of the revamped policy.
In this, the load a car will put on the road must be estimated. Although the project has not yet begun, the work will start soon and a report will be submitted to the ministry. Many years have passed since PCUs were first introduced, but since then, the size and speed of the vehicles have significantly changed.
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How much does a small car owner have to pay?
The Passenger Car Unit (PCU) project at IIT-BHU will determine the calculation formula for toll fees. Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has already stated numerous times that a GPS-based toll system will be implemented as soon as possible.
With the proposal to base toll calculations on the updated PCU, drivers of small, light cars who travel short distances on highways will now pay less toll fee than drivers of other heavier vehicles. Large, heavy, and long-distance vehicles will have to pay a higher toll fee.
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