Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the government has decided to initially implement Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based toll collection system on select national highways on a pilot basis as an additional facility with FASTag. Gadkari gave this information to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday on behalf of the Road Ministry. According to Bhasha news, in a written reply, Gadkari said that pilot studies regarding GNSS based toll have been done on Bengaluru-Mysore section of NH-275 in Karnataka and Panipat-Hisar section of NH-709 in Haryana.
Stakeholder consultations held
According to the report, Gadkari said that stakeholder consultations were held through international workshops on June 25, 2024 and global expressions of interest (EOI) were invited for wider industry consultations on June 7, 2024, the last date for which is July 22, 2024. Replying to a separate question, he said that the Master Plan for National Highways for improving logistics with provision of expressways/high speed highways has been prepared by the Road Ministry under the PM Gatishakti Framework using transport models with analysis of e-way bills (GST), toll and traffic survey data.
Loan of Rs 3.77 lakh crore has been taken
Replying to another question, the minister said out of all the national highway projects that started about 10 years ago, 697 projects have overshot their original completion time. He said the primary reasons for delay in NH projects are land acquisition, statutory clearances, utility shifting, encroachment removal, law and order, financial constraints of the contractor, poor performance of the contractor and force majeure events like Covid-19 pandemic, heavy rainfall, floods, cyclones, landslides/avalanches etc. According to Gadkari, since 2014, NHAI has taken a total loan and other borrowings of Rs 3.77 lakh crore to complete the projects/schemes assigned to them.
About 20,000km of national highway work remains to be done
The minister also informed that at the beginning of the current financial year, under ongoing/awarded projects, the ministry had about 20,000 km of national highways remaining for construction. In addition, the ministry has a shelf of projects under DPR and tendering process, which will further enhance the construction progress during the current and next financial years. Gadkari also said that about Rs 1.94 crore has been spent so far on payment of two bills related to rescue and relief operations at Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand.
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