Nueva Delhi: fourteen toll collection agencies have been prohibited for two years for “irregular activities” in the collection of the road user rate, NHAI said Thursday.
This occurs almost two months after the Special Task Force of the UTTAR Pradesh police discovered a parallel cash collection fraud of Fastag vehicles without restrictions or black quotes through separate portable machines instead of enrupted the cash collected through the Toll Management System (TMS).
In a statement, the National Road Authority of India (NHAI) said that, based on the STF raid in the toll square of SHIV Ghulam in Mirzapur and signed registered, the authority had served ‘show notices’ to the breeding agencies, but their answers were not satisfactory. The value values worth more than 100 million rupees of the breeding agencies have been lost and are placed by breach of contract, he said.
Meanwhile, in the Minister of Parliament, transport by transport by the road and roads, Nitin Gadkari, Lok Sabha informed Thursday that the Government had formed an investigation committee of three members to analyze the toll fraud. The panel found that although the electronic toll collection system (etc.) based on Fastag, which represents 98% of all transactions, remains largely safe, certain gaps have been exploited to avoid this configuration, he added.
The NHAI is also considering the installation of audit cameras with AI to high value toll places to guarantee a precise recount and classification of vehicles, Gadkari said.
In a written answer to another question about the deduction of incorrect or defective toll on national roads, he told the house that the NHAI reimbursed in case of transactions of 12.5 Lakh in 2024 and has raised fine of RS 2 million rupees in toll collection agencies for incorrect deductions. However, the minister said there were 410 Fastag Crore transactions in 2014 and that defective deductions were only “0.03% of all Fastag transactions.”
To eliminate cash transactions in the toll places to pay twice the user’s rate as a fine for not having a Fastag or using a blacklist tag, the NHAI will implement a variable UPI payment system – This captures details such as the type of vehicle, the toll square and the amount of toll, avoiding the transfer of the amount to a personal account. The initial trial has begun in the Kherki Dhaula toll square in Haryana and will extend to all places in the country.
The sources said that the NHAI has focused on payments through UPI considering the high use of applications -based digital interfaces. In addition, as there will be a variable payment of UPI, there will be no scope so that NHAI does not obtain details of exact transactions, since toll operators cannot solve any UPI QR code in places for the payment of travelers.