Chidambaram met World Bank president Jim Yong Kim yesterday (Saturday) morning on  the sidelines of the annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

MUMBAI: India’s first national highway electronic toll collection (ETC) system was launched in Thane Friday. With this India joined the ranks of the US, Western Europe, Singapore and Australia that have implemented this sophisticated form of technology. The new system will curb overcharging by unscrupulous toll plaza attendants apart from helping motorists avoid long queues or fumble for change. It was recommended by an expert committee headed byNandan Nilekani to ease traffic flow and introduce transparency in toll collection.

Union minister for road transport and highways, Dr C P Joshi, launched the first inter-operable, electronic toll collection system based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology at the toll plazas of Mumbai-Vadodara section. The launch function was held at village Tawa near Dahanu in Thane district. The RFID tag is a prepaid tag which is affixed in the upper portion of the vehicle’s windscreen. It works as a prepaid toll account and facilitates automatic toll deduction when the vehicle crosses a toll plaza. The unique number of the tag is scanned by the ‘readers’ that are fitted in the dedicated ETC lanes of the toll plazas.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy and a key state in the 27-nation European Union.

DMIC is aimed at creating mega industrial infrastructureBSE 2.62 % along the Delhi-Mumbai Rail Freight Corridor, which is under implementation.

Japan is giving financial and technical aid for the project, which will cover seven states totalling 1,483 km.

Seven National Manufacturing and Investment Zones ( NMIZs) have been notified along the DMIC. The project envisages development of world-class industrial townships on a public- private-partnership model.

Japan has committed to invest $ 4.5 billion in this project. The Union Cabinet had approved an expenditure of Rs 18,500 crore on development of infrastructure for the project.

Further, India has sought Germany’s cooperation in taking up a pilot project on skill development in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project.

The new corridor planned between Mumbai and Bangalore likewise also opens up interesting prospects for Indo-German cooperation.

The Board will be the apex body for overall planning and development of infrastructure projects, the spokesman said.

The Board will act as a nodal agency to co-ordinate all efforts of the government regarding development and implementation of infrastructure projects involving private participation and funding from sources other than those provided in the state budget and will also identify infrastructure projects for private participation.

It will promote competitiveness and progressively involve private participation while ensuring fair deal to end-users, identify and also promote technology initiatives in urban development and infrastructure development sector for improving efficiency in the system.

“ C P Joshi, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways dedicated to the nation today, the first interoperable Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) technology based Electronic Tolling System at Charoti Toll Plaza, Dahanu in Thane District, Maharashtra,” an official statement said.

The interoperable RIFD based system would allow vehicles to sail through six toll plazas, operated by three different road developers – Larsen and ToubroBSE 1.70 %(L&T), IRB InfrastructureBSE 1.14 % and NHAI, the statement said.

These include IRB toll plazas at Charoti, Bhagwada, Boriach and Choriyasi besides NHAI plaza at Narmada Bridge and L&T IDPL Plaza at Karjan, Vadodara, it added.

To make the toll collection process at the National Highways (NH) easier and more transparent, Joshi had announced to roll out RFID-based electronic toll collection across all the toll plazas on national highways through out the country by 2014.

The pilot project for this has already been launched on Chandigarh-Parwanoo on NH-5.

Electronic Toll Collection is a system enabling collection of toll payments electronically allowing for near-nonstop toll collection and traffic monitoring.

Under the system, a RFID chip-embedded sticker is put on the vehicles allowing deduction of money at toll plazas automatically.

Currently, vehicles plying on Indian highways have to pay cash at all the toll plazas to pass through.

The statement said RIFD tags will be available at the Kiosks located at all the Toll Plazas at Mumbai-Vadodara stretch besides would be available online at the ICICI BSE 0.90 %Bank’s website.

“It will work as a pre-paid toll account and there will be automatic toll deduction when the vehicle crossed Toll Plazas. The initial cost of the tag has been kept at Rs 150 and the minimum amount to be deposited for a car is Rs 200.

The 640-km project-part of the 920 km Rewari-Vadodara stretch-is awaiting approval from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is funding the project, to begin financial bidding.

It will be the second project along the 3,322-km Dedicated Freight Corridor to be put on the block. In January, the government had awarded the first project-343-km of the 1,839-km Eastern Corridor-to Tata-Aldesa JV. Preparatory work on this Rs 3,300 crore Kanpur-Khurja section is likely to be completed by June.

The Dedicated Freight Corridor project, being implemented by the railways through theDedicated Freight Corridor Corp of India Ltd ( DFCCIL), aims to connect the important freight lanes between Delhi and Mumbai in the west and Ludhiana and Dankuni in the east.

The 640-km project on the Western Corridor is likely to go to either the consortium between Japan’s Sojitz Corp and Larsen & Toubro or Mitsui, Ircon and Leighton.

The government plans to invite bids for about 1,500 km of freight corridor lines by the end of this fiscal, most of which will be in the western corridor. “Of the 1,500 km, 950-1,000 km will be from the western corridor while 400 km will be from the eastern corridor,” DFCCIL’s MD, RK Gupta, told ET.

According to officials, these projects are likely to cost about 10 crore per km and can help reduce CO2 emission by 450 million tonne over the next 30 years. About 90% of the land required for the stretches has already been acquired by DFFCIL. “The remaining portions are in difficult places or require alignment changes. We should be able to complete this in six months,” Gupta said.