2024 · GS Paper 3 · Q6 · 10 marks
What is the technology being employed for electronic toll collection on highways? What are its advantages and limitations? What are the proposed changes that will make this process seamless? Would this transition carry any potential hazards?
In short
Highway tolls are collected through RFID-based FASTag under NPCI's NETC programme, which cuts queues but charges by stretch and needs plazas, and GNSS-based and free-flow tolling are proposed to make it seamless. The shift carries privacy, signal, spoofing and exclusion hazards that need NavIC and DPDP Act safeguards.
Model answer
Ghissu Editorial · Verified 4 Oct 2026 · 288 words
The technology
RFID under NPCI's National Electronic Toll Collection programme; a passive FASTag on the windscreen is read at plazas and the toll debited from a linked account, mandatory since February 2021.
Advantages
Shorter queues, less fuel waste and emissions, no cash leakage, transparent revenue data for NHAI, and products like the FASTag Annual Pass (August 2025).
Limitations
Read failures from damaged tags, payment for the full stretch rather than distance travelled, and tag misuse that prompted "One Vehicle, One FASTag" (2024).
GNSS tolling
Fee Rules amended in 2024 allow distance-based tolling through an on-board unit, piloted on the Bengaluru-Mysuru (NH-275) and Panipat-Hisar (NH-709) stretches.
Multi-Lane Free Flow
Number-plate cameras and FASTag readers on gantries let vehicles pass without stopping.
Privacy hazard
Continuous location tracking risks surveillance and needs safeguards under the DPDP Act, 2023.
Technical and social hazards
Signal loss in tunnels, spoofing, reliance on foreign satellites unless NavIC is used, wrong billing on parallel roads, and digital exclusion.
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Question from the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) Examination 2024 paper. Answer written by Ghissu's engine and checked against our editorial standards. Found an error? Tell us and we correct it within 48 hours.