Toll gates to stay, FASTags must in 4 months

New Delhi: Union highways and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that FASTag in vehicles will be mandatory to cross toll booths after four months.

While replying to a discussion on demands for grants for the road transport and highways ministry in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gadkari said that though tolls cannot be removed, but passing through them can be made easy through these FASTag for electronic toll collection.

He added people need to pay toll if they want good roads and the money collected from areas that have the capacity to pay is utilised for building roads in rural and hilly areas.

“Toll zindagi bar band nahi ho sakta... Kam zyaada ho saktha hai. Toll ka jaanamdata mein hoon... (Toll system can never end though the rates may vary from time to time,” Mr Gadkari said while adding “If you want good services, you have to pay for it. Government does not have money.” However, the minister said that his ministry is considering exempting school buses and state transport buses from tolls.

Talking about road accidents and crashes on highways, Mr Gadkari said his ministry has identified 786 black spots out of which 300 such spots have been corrected and urged the Members of Parliament (MP) to identify such spots in their constituencies and work to improve them to bring down accident rates.

He also blamed poor road engineering, tyre technology and unskilled drivers among the reasons for crashes. In this context he mentioned use of nitrogen in tyres to prevent accidents.

The minister also said that to curb a shortage of over 25 lakh drivers, his ministry was willing to open a driving training centre in their constituencies.

Mr Gadkari said that his government has provided 203 new ambulances on national highways in addition to existing 350 to save life on roads. “The new ambulances are equipped with cutting tools and drivers are equipped to cut damaged vehicles to rescue passengers. These drivers are also trained to give saline water (intravenous) to the injured,” Mr Gadkari added.

Listing out his government’s achievements Mr Gadkari said the government has built 40,000 kilometres of highway in the last five years. In this context he mentioned that land acquisition has been a major problem in road construction projects despite the government land cost higher than the market rate. He mentioned cases in West Bengal and Bihar where the progress is slow.

Gadkari also informed the House that the ministry is working on a new expressway between New Delhi and Mumbai.