ORR commuters now need not queue up to pay toll charges
Outer Ring Road
Hyderabad: Outer Ring Road commuters now need not queue up to pay toll charges, as the HMDA has introduced ORR ‘smart cards’ for all classification of vehicles, as part of the Intelligent Toll Management System. This smart card will be similar to that of a credit card with a chip. Commuters can zoom pass the toll plazas after the system approves it. The card will have to be placed on the board unit of the vehicle. This card will be available at ‘point of sale centres’ at toll interchanges and the minimum balance required is Rs 1,000. The commuter has to recharge the card. Presently this advance system is available at 23 toll gates out of 180.
The ORR has 19 interchanges and 180 toll collection lanes, while in phase one the smart card system is only available at 23 collection lanes. B. Anand Mohan, project director, ORR said, “This system has been named Electronic Toll Collection. After a commuter purchases the smart card, the owner would have to install it on a mounted board unit (which needs to be purchased and placed between the windshield and bonnet) every time they commute on ORR. When the vehicle is 100 meters away from the toll gate, the antenna above the gate will automatically read whether the card has been issued by HMDA, its validity and balance amount. If the three are approved, the toll gate will open and the present toll charge will be deducted. If any component is missing, there will be another gate towards the right where the vehicle can take a turn and get into the lanes where the toll is collected manually.
The ETC system will also note of the total number of trips made on the ORR and the entry and exit points. This system is mainly to help save time of regular ORR takers. For the first component, the HMDA has spent over Rs 68 crore.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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