Driving on the national highways is all set to go seamless starting May 2012. This seamless travel will be because of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that will cost you just Rs 100.

The tags currently attached to the cars and used in the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway costs around Rs 1500. The government’s intentions are clear that these tags have to be made available to the masses for use.

The report of the committee headed by Nandan Nilekani, the UIDAI chairman has submitted a report to the government suggesting the use of RFID technology. The identity is transmitted in the form of unique numbers of a person or the object using radio waves. The chairman of UIDAI has said “We wanted it to be cost effective and not use too much technology”.

These tags will be accepted pan-India. The auto manufacturers would be instructed by the government to install these tags in the vehicles while manufacturing them. The inefficient toll collections which currently is causing a loss of over Rs 1500 crore to the government is expected to be curtailed by use of these tags.

Given that in the next five years, over 30,000km of roads will become toll roads, these tags will become a necessity.

Kamal Nath, the minister of road transport and highways has said “This will help in seamless movement, increase transparency and plug leakages in revenue”.

He also said “The revenue leakage at present is 15 per cent of the toll collection, which comes to about Rs 300 crore”. Rs 2,000 crore was the revenue that was collected from tolls last year. In the next five years the government is planning to increase the roads under toll to 30,000km from 8,500km out of the 71,000km of national highway.  Kamal Nath has also stated “We should be able to toll 30,000 km of National Highways in five years”.

The minister of Road transport and highways has also said the talks will be held between the SIAM, Society of Indian automobile Manufacturers and the government to have the chips installed in the vehicles while manufacturing them. “We will consult SIAM to have this chip on every vehicle produced.”

As on March 31, 2010 close to 1.2 crore vehicles were produced in India as per the data from SIAM. Thus the cost of the tags for ETC would be around Rs 120 crore, which is calculated based on this data.

The UIDAI chairman has said that rechargeable chips would be installed in the windscreens of the vehicles. Nandan Nilekani also head the Unique Identification Authority of India whose main aim is to implement the requisite legal, technical, institutional infrastructure to issue unique identity number to all Indian residents.

The benefits of the tag will range from uninterrupted trips to better tracking of the stolen vehicles with the help of the unique ID number.

According to the Economic Survey, “Against the target of awarding projects for a total length of about 9,800 km under various phases of National Highways Development Project (NHDP)
during 2009-10, projects have been awarded for a total length of about 1,285 km up to November 2009”.

Only 13 percent of road projects were awarded during this fiscal year. The major reasons for such delays are the introduction of new methods for approval (public-private-partnership projects), delay in acquisition of land and environment clearances.

According to ministry of road transport and highways, some 131 projects are delayed due to problems such as land acquisition, shifting of utilities, approvals for road over bridges, environmental clearance, law and order issues, and poor performance of few contractors and so on. In 2009-10, only about 1,490 km of highways has been developed till November 2009 as against the target of about 3,165 km of highways under NHDP.

With Indian economy on the upswing despite bad conditions worldwide, government is initiating action to improve infrastructure to keep up with the projected economic growth for the decade.

Kamal Nath, Road Transport and Highways Minister, is in Malaysia to meet government authorities and prospective investors. He said that last May, the pace of road building was just two kilometers a day. Now, it has increased to nine kilometers a day. The goal is to reach 20 kilometers a day by March-April.

This growth is essential to accomplish 7,000 kilometers of new highway a year to keep pace with the economic growth the country is able to generate. One of the main obstacles to economic growth is insufficient and collapsing infrastructure.

In the effort to make double-digit economic growth a reality, government is proposing a $500 billion upgradation project for its roads, airports and ports. One-third of this amount will be coming from the private sector. India permits cent percent foreign investment in road building.

To make the road building process smoother, land acquisition is made easier and bids are being awarded only after 80% of land acquisition is complete.

Building roads is vital to the growth of agriculture, industry and trade. It also plays a major role in aiding inclusive growth, which is one of the present government’s pet initiatives. Though India ranks second in road network with 3.4 million kilometers of road, only two percent of this comes under national highways, which is responsible for 40% of net traffic.

In spite of the inadequacy of road infrastructure, roadways account for 70% of freight and 85% of passenger movement. The bane of Indian roads is its average speed, which is around 50 km/hour.