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Geospatial Research Shrikrishna Upadhyaya Geospatial Research Shrikrishna Upadhyaya

The New Indian Express | Toll Plazas: Where FASTags have fallen short and why India's new dream might prove harder to realise

By Dr. Y Nithiyanandam

There was once a toll to driving through toll roads on highways. To help ease it came the pan-India rollout of a FASTag based system in December 2019. More than four years later, we are now talking of a next-gen Global Navigation Satellite System based toll plazas. But how much of a difference have we seen? I was wondering about this while being stuck at Mahasamudram Toll Plaza (MTS) on National Highway 4 (now renumbered as 69) in Andhra Pradesh. This is a key stop, located around 170 km east of the Karnataka capital on the Bengaluru-Chennai highway. With an ocean of vehicles waiting to pass, there was total chaos on January 13 during the Makar Sankranti weekend. Read the full article here.

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