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Mamuni Das

New Delhi , June 4

The clash of technology standards like that of GSM and CDMA in the telecom space may be replicated in the country's road sector for the electronic toll collection (ETC) operations.

Companies supporting ISO CALM infrared technology, which is an evolving standard, want NHAI to adopt this for its toll automation project. This follows National Highways Authority of India (NHAI's) recent move inviting bids for tags and on-board units based on another technology standard widely used and adopted in European countries — 5.8 Giga Hertz Microwave DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) complying with CEN/TC-278 standards. Both technologies have their inherent costs and benefits, say industry observers.

MARKET SIZE

The toll automation market size could be huge depending on how fast the country and vehicle users adopt it.

NHAI has invited bids for a pilot project now, but plans to set up an ETC every 65 km. Each toll automation would need about Rs 3 crore of equipment.

The Golden Quadrilateral stretch would thus need about 100 toll plazas and the North South-East West corridor, when completed, would require another 100.

Thus, the market size, excluding the on-board units on vehicles, could turn out to be of the Rs 600-crore range. Adopting a single standard for all ETC plazas is desirable to ensure interoperability, i.e. vehicle users can use the same on-board units to pay tolls everywhere.

PROS AND CONS OF STANDARDS

Says Efkon Group India's CEO, Mr Pushkar Kulkarni, "The CEN 278 restricts itself to microwave media but ISO CALM allows several media including infrared, microwave, cellular 3G, for optimal use of several media for the right applications." Austrian firm Efkon provides both CALM-based and CEN 278 equipment.

However, critics say that ISO CALM based on microwave and 3G cellular has not evolved, and is yet to be adopted anywhere in the world. Moreover, industry players say that at present, there are more vendors supporting CEN 278 microwave than ISO CALM infrared.

According to Mr Puneet Singh Bindra, General Manager, IRD South Asia, "CEN 278 equipment can be bought from Thales (France), Q-Free (Norway), IBI (Canada), GEA (France), Marconi (Italy), Autostrade (Italy), Fela (Switzerland), Raytheon (Canada) and Efkon. But, CALM infrared equipment can be bought from one vendor only." IRD is a Canada-based systems integrator in the intelligent transportation systems space.

Says Mr Deepak Darda, Senior Consultant, IBI Group, "CEN 278 is used by several countries within Europe unlike CALM infrared. ISO CALM is under development and it may take several years to arrive at a standard."

However, Mr Kulkarni claims that there are four suppliers of CALM infrared including Efkon, AITS (South Korea), Great Eastern Tolling Company (Taiwan) and a Malaysia-based firm.

"CEN 278 microwave is under radio wave legislation of Government and can be used to control illegal use. It is also not affected by fog, dust and smoke unlike CALM infrared technology," said sources adding that ISO CALM, when established in due course, may emerge as a better standard.

Mr Kulkarni added: "CALM enables several important ITS applications including vehicle tracking, fleet management, passenger information systems, vehicle to road-side communications, emergency services, speed control and enforcement.

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