The Hindu Business Line : European standards for electronic toll collection

The national highways are likely to have European standards for the technology being adopted for electronic toll collection (ETC) systems. For ETC systems, there exist several other technology standards including American and Japanese.

Having a common standard for all electronic collection systems is important to ensure that the same smart cards and on-board units can be used for making electronic payment of highway tolls across locations. It uses vehicle-to-roadside communication technologies to perform an electronic monetary transaction between a vehicle passing through a toll plaza and the toll collection agency, Mr R.C. Palekar, GM-Electronics, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), explained.

ETC equipment can take the place of a human toll collector. In addition, it allows such transactions to be performed while vehicles travel at highway cruising speed.Pilot project

NHAI would install ETC at 14 locations as a pilot project. For tags and on-board units, the standard is 5.8 Giga Hertz Microwave DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) complying with CEN/TC-278 and GSS -3.0 standards, Mr Palekar said. For contact-less smart cards, the equipment would have to be based on communication frequency of 13.56 Mega Hertz and ISO 14443-A standard.

He said "We would like to have interoperable standards across the country to ensure that same cards can be used across the network. But, this is a pilot project and we would have a consultation for other standards as well."

"We have chosen European standard as the ETC on the US road network has multiple standards, though they are trying to emerge towards a common standard," explained Mr Palekar.

Revamping toll collection

NHAI plans to modernise the toll collection systems in a phased manner.

Once automated, there would be lanes where road users can drive past using an on-board unit that would be attached to the windscreens of their vehicles and the requisite toll would be deducted automatically.

More Stories on : Roadways | E-Commerce & E-Business | Economy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Air Deccan to choose anchor investors in 2 weeks

European standards for electronic toll collection