ATTSII Recommends Guidelines For A Suitable Electronic Toll Collection Standardisation For India

July 31, 2008

PROPOSES WORLD WIDE TESTED AND RECOGNIZED CEN 278, BASED ON DSRC MICROWAVE TECHNLOGY

New Delhi, 23rd July, 2008: The Association of Toll and Traffic Systems Integrators of India (ATTSII) has recommended guidelines for a suitable Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) to the working group formed by the Committee of Road Safety and Traffic Management, Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways to determine the technology for Advance Traffic Management Systems, Advance Travel or Information Systems and Electronic Toll collection Systems. The association proposes CEN 278 standard based on DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) microwave technology for the Indian subcontinent keeping in mind the Indian environment and driving conditions.

Representing the association, Mr. Sachin Bhatia, President ATTSII and Country Director of KAPSCH METRO JV said, “CEN 278 is the most acceptable technology worldwide with interoperability standards. It is already successfully implemented at the Delhi – Gurgaon Expressway, the largest 32 lane toll plaza in India. Introduction of smart tags based on microwave technology has received overwhelming response from drivers who earlier had to wait in long queues for several hours at the Toll. Now, it only takes few seconds for each vehicle to pass through, significantly reducing waiting time. CEN 278 is a cost effective technology as multiple vendors are present in the market to ensure that customers get the best competitive deal.

“At a time when India is starting to put in place the ETC technology, it should adopt the most advanced technology that is pre tested, allows wider applications and faster data transfer speed. We cannot afford to lose time in deciding on a technology as there is an urgent need to meet the ever increasing traffic management requirements in India that suits the masses and is most viable to implement,” said Mr. Aman Kishore ,VP of the ATTSII and Managing Director of International Road Dynamics (IRD) South Asia.

“IRD have successfully implemented CEN 278 standard microwave based Electronic Toll Collection(ETC) technology in April 2006 at Hoogly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) site at Vidyasagar Setu – Kolkata. HRBC is a West Bengal Government organization for operation, implementation and maintenance of Hoogly Bridge. Currently, it has 24 lanes at 1 Plaza with 4 ETC Lanes and is efficiently meeting requirements of the department to cater to heavy traffic volumes in a matter of seconds at the entry to Kolkata city,” added Mr. Kishore.

He further explained, “Most of the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) operators are opting for technology for ETC which is more cost effective and operationally efficient for Indian conditions. Recently, we have bagged an order for implementation of CEN 278 standard microwave based ETC from one of biggest BOT and O&M operators in the country – Ideal Road Builders (IRB), Mumbai for one of its locations at Mumbai’s Entry Points. The decision of opting for Microwave based ETC technology by such a reputed company must have been taken after much due diligence.”

“The major advantage of the microwave technology is the presence of numerous vendors in the market that generates fair competition. We must understand the emerging traffic volume in our country and we must opt and guide for technology which best meets diverse user needs and national interest, rather than being guided by commercial interest of vendors.

“CEN 278 standard is based on microwave technology, making it more reliable, robust and viable. A very recent example is the stormy morning of 14th May; any other known standards based on other technologies like infrared would have created chaos at points where it would have been applied. This is because in dusty weather, data fails to be securely transmitted, resulting in distortion in reporting and further leading to revenue leakages at tolling booths. As ATTSII represents the road operators in India, we sincerely hope to provide the best infrastructure and cost effective method of ETC for the end benefits for our people, we strongly recommend CEN 278 to be included as a policy due to its advantages outweighing that of any other present technology, pre -tested and widely accepted”, further explained Mr. Bhatia.

“It is a proven technology being used for electronic toll collection for many years around the world. This proves also our more than 140 reference projects in 30 countries in the Asian/Pacific region, Europe, Australia, Latin America and in South Africa. This technology guarantees thanks the reliability of the tolling system and the low error rate the maximum toll income and it is the perfect choice for charging on motorways, expressways and even secondary main roads. With respect to interoperability the DSRC is the only working technology today providing the necessary standards and specifications. We have also already made very good experiences with using of the DSRC tolling systems for the improving of the road safety and for the optimizing of the traffic flow by the installation of traffic data sensors or variable message signs on the toll gantries,” said Erwin Toplak, Management Board, Kapsch TrafficCom AG.

About ATTSII

The Association of Toll and Traffic Systems Integrators of India (ATTSII) has been established in India for the Toll and traffic Industry players to share their views; ideas and technologies through a common platform. The Association comprises of the leading players of the Industry as below:

IRD, Canada / India
Kapsch TrafficCom AG; Austria/ India
GEA; France / India
CS ROUTE ; France/ India
Metro Road Systems ; India
Q-Free / Comvision , India

About Kapsch TrafficCom AG

Kapsch TrafficCom AG is an international supplier of innovative road traffic telematics solutions. Its principle business is the development and supply of electronic toll collection (ETC) systems, in particular for the multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) of the traffic, and the technical and commercial operation of such systems. Kapsch TrafficCom also supplies traffic management systems, with a focus on road safety and traffic control, and electronic access systems and parking management. With more than 140 reference projects in 30 countries in Europe, Australia, Latin America, in the Asian/Pacific region and in South Africa, and with almost 12 million on-board units (OBUs) and nearly 11,000 equipped lanes, Kapsch TrafficCom has positioned itself among the leading suppliers of ETC systems worldwide. Kapsch TrafficCom is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries and representative offices in 20 countries.

For further media queries contact:

Alka Ohja / Archana Sharda
Blue Lotus PR
[email protected] / [email protected]
011-46571241 / 42
9958443490 / 9811838332

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under ATTSII, BOT, CEN 278, Default, ETC, Investment and Finance, ISO, Toll Management System, Toll Plaza, Tolling

From April, pay toll tax to use NH 25

February 24, 2008

Lucknow, February 24 Planning to take the Lucknow-Kanpur highway? Get ready to pay for a smooth driving experience. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is all set to introduce toll tax for the 48-km Lucknow-Unnao stretch on NH 25 by April this year. It will set up a toll tax booth just before Nawabganj.

NHAI officials said the recommendation in this regard has already been sent to the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways and a notification is expected within a month.

The toll tax may be charged at reduced rates initially, they added.

“A toll plaza is generally set up at an interval of 70-80 km on the highway. But a railway overbridge in Unnao on Lucknow-Kanpur stretch is yet to be completed. So, the toll may be reduced proportionately,” said M K Jain, Project Director of NHAI.

The proposed site (near Nawabganj) for the toll plaza suggests that commuters coming from Lucknow to Unnao and Kanpur will have to pay the tax.

“Similarly, the people coming from Kanpur to Lucknow will also have to pay the toll. But, people travelling from Lucknow to Banthara or from Kanpur to Unnao would be saved from the tax,” an official said.

The proposed toll site, however, may be changed after the ROB in Unnao is completed.

While cars, jeeps and vans will have to pay a tax of around Rs 25, trucks and buses will be charged around Rs 95.

“The toll tax is calculated for 12 am to 11.59 pm for one-side trip. If a commuter has to return on the same day, he will have to shell out about one-and-a-half times of the toll rate,” a NHAI official said.

“For daily commuters, the NHAI can issue monthly passes,” he added.

According to NHAI norms, VIPs, defence vehicles, police vehicles, fire-fighting vehicles, ambulances, funeral vans, posts and telegraphs department vehicles will not have pay toll tax.

This will be the second highway after NH 2 in the state on which toll tax will be introduced.

“According to government policy, NHAI will set up toll plaza as soon a particular highway stretch is completed. And these are going to stay, so that NHAI could carry out maintenance and upgradation works effectively,” another official said.

Source: expressindia.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Construction, Expressway, Media, NHAI, Toll Management System, Toll Plaza, Tolling

India’s Largest Toll Plaza – Delhi-Gurgaon

January 28, 2008

Kapsch Metro JV has commissioned the Delhi Gurgaon Expressway with 3 Toll Plazas with a total of 59 toll lanes. The largest toll plaza has a total of 32 + 4 reversible toll lanes.

The Project has a total of 24 ETC with some of them mixed type with cash and smart card facility ; the remaining being cash and smart Card type.

All lanes are equipped with Automatic vehicle classification systems . All the three plazas are interconnected through a WAN.

India’s Largest Toll Plaza -Delhi-Gurgaon is in operation!

The First Kapsch Toll System In India Finalized: Toll System For One Of The Most Frequented Highways Is Up And Running.

Kapsch
Since End of January 2008 runs the operation of the first road toll project of Kapsch TrafficCom AG in India with no problems. Within a joint venture structure – the Kapsch Metro Joint Venture – Kapsch TrafficCom alongside the Indian Metro Road Systems Ltd. fitted one section of the National Highway No. 8 with a modern manual/electronic toll system. This highway covers the route from Delhi to Gurgaon and is one of the most frequented roads in the region. The central toll plaza with altogether 32 toll lanes is one of the largest toll stations in all of Asia.

Since January 2008, the road from Delhi to Gurgaon features a modern manual/electronic toll system based on microwave technology (CEN 278). Completion of this toll system marks the successful finalization of the first road toll project of Kapsch TrafficCom in India. The principal, licensee DS Constructions Ltd., decided to award the contract to the Kapsch Metro Joint Venture in September 2006.

“For us, the selection of KapschMetro JV as a technology partner was an important step in the management of the traffic volumes on the project. The technology selected is stable, secure and has processed over 3 million transactions to date with no problems. The installation of the equipment was done in difficult circumstances with live traffic of over 130,000 per day travelling through the lanes during the installation period. The equipment implementation of the Delhi-Gurgaon toll project is a success story, Kapsch Metro JV delivered the project on schedule and to our complete satisfaction“, explains Allan Le Roux, Chief Operations Officer- Tolling of DS Constructions Ltd.

“Kapsch has already performed successful projects in India in the past, contracting GSM-R work for Indian Railroads, the Indian national railway system. With this commission, we were able to enter the Indian toll system market within an extremely short time, owing our success largely to our staff’s wealth of know-how and to the many years of experience we have in the Asian area. For me, the route that has now been completed is just the beginning of numerous further business ventures in Asia“, says Erwin Toplak, Board Member of Kapsch TrafficCom AG.

The Toll Road project is constructed on a 20 year BOT basis and has a length of 27 km long and rates among the most heavily trafficked projects in the region and provides important connectivity to the Indira Gandhi International Airport of New Delhi and the “New Millennium City” Gurgaon which boasts as having one of the worlds biggest shopping malls! The three toll plazas on the project have a total of 56 toll lanes. The main toll plaza located on the Delhi Haryana Border has 32 toll lanes. Motorists are able to use cash or use a Smart Card in at all lanes except the 4 dedicated non stop lanes with exclusive payment via microwave TAGs.

Kapsch TrafficCom AG is a global provider of innovative road traffic telematic systems, products, and services. Kapsch TrafficCom develops and supplies electronic toll collection systems, in particular multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) systems, and is also able to act as the technical and commercial manager for operating these systems. Further, Kapsch TrafficCom offers traffic management solutions (with the focus on road safety and traffic control), electronic access control systems, and parking space management. Kapsch TrafficCom has established itself among the global market leaders for ETC systems with more than 140 installed toll systems in 30 countries in Europe, Australia, Latin America, the Asian/Pacific Area, and South Africa, which altogether feature more than eleven million transponders and about 11’000 fitted lanes. Kapsch TrafficCom is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and has subsidiaries and representative offices in 18 countries.

Vienna on 27th March, 2008

For further information, please contact:
Brigitte Herdlicka
Public Relations & Sponsoring
Kapsch Group
Phone: +43 (0) 50 811 2705
1120 Vienna, Wagenseilgasse 1
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.kapschtraffic.com
www.kapsch.net

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under BOT, Construction, Delhi, EPC, ETC, Expressway, Gurgaon, Highway, Infrastructure, Investment and Finance, Media, Metro Road Systems, NCR, NHAI, NHDP, Projects, Toll Management System, Toll Plaza, Tolling

Toll policy change may rationalize annual hikes

December 4, 2007

Under the proposed policy, only 40% of the WPI will be taken into account while revising the rates

New Delhi: Even as tolled roads are becoming a norm in the country with the government handing over more highway projects to the private sector, a new tolling policy is seeking to limit the annual increase in toll rates.

As of now, toll rates are revised every year and concessionaires are compensated in full as per the increase in the wholesale price index (WPI). But under the new policy, which is yet to be placed before the cabinet for approval, only 40% of WPI will be taken into account while revising the toll rate. This is apart from a fixed component of a 3% increase every year.

As many as 54 highway construction packages of around 320 projects awarded under the National Highway Development Programme were “build operate and toll” projects. According to Planning Commission member Anwar-ul-Hoda, the idea behind changing the structure of toll revision was to ensure that the concessionaires are paid only their due share while fixing annual hikes on toll.

“The input costs of the concessionaire mostly occur many years before they begin to collect toll. So why should the toll revision be based on the wholesale price index of the current year?” asks ul-Hoda.

An official with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) also said that many components of WPI did not directly affect the highway construction industry.

The CEO of the roads division of the GMR Group, Rajan Krishnan, said his company was neutral to the proposal as WPI was difficult to predict. “Even the best economists cannot clearly track the movement of WPI. This is just a matter of mathematical modelling,” said Krishnan.

According to Krishnan, however, concessionaires stood to gain from the new policy so long as WPI was less than 5%. But when WPI moves beyond 5%, the toll rate to be charged under the new proposal would be lower than what is currently collected, he added.

Nirmaljit Singh, member, technical, NHAI, said the proposal was with the ministry of road transport and highways, from where it would be sent to the cabinet for clearance.

“I just think you are increasingly reaching a situation where the risk-reward equation is being changed against the government,” said an analyst with a consulting firm, who did not wish to be identified. “The government is taking more and more of the risk. You don’t need to guarantee a 3% increase every year when concessionaires had already accepted the earlier policy (where fee revisions were tied only to WPI),” the analyst said.

According to accepted wisdom, the government passes on fewer risks—such as those associated with traffic—to the concessionaire when evolving a public-private partnership policy and as the market evolves, passes on more of the risks. However, this administration is doing the opposite, the analyst said.

The analyst cited the example of the recent move away from “negative grants”, a term for upfront money paid to the government for the privilege of winning a concession, over and above the cost of the project. Mint had earlier reported plans to do away with negative grants in favour of a revenue-share model, where NHAI would derive a percentage of revenues from toll roads. “By going for revenue sharing, the government is taking more risks,” the analyst said.

Source: livemint.com

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under BOT, Construction, Expressway, Highway, Infrastructure, Investment and Finance, NHAI, NHDP, Sensex, Toll Management System, Tolling

Evaluating toll road credits

November 1, 2006

It has been recently reported that the government of India has given its approval for six-laning of 6,500 km of national highways, including 5,700 km forming part of the Golden Quadrilateral at a total cost of Rs 41,210 crore. In terms of financing, the expectation is that private sector will commit investments of Rs 35,690 crore. Also the government, in order to accelerate implementation of highway projects of Rs 2,20,000 crore, has set a target of awarding 175 contracts for Rs 76,540 crore, all on BOT basis by March 2008. Since a number of these projects are going to be predominantly debt financed with repayments supported by toll collections, it would be timely and useful to have an analytical framework for assessing the credit quality of various types of toll roads and financing structures.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Highway, Investment and Finance, Projects, Toll Management System, Tolling

4-laning of Amritsar to Wagah road okayed

October 14, 2006

With elections to the Punjab Assembly due early next year, the Union Cabinet today cleared the long-pending demand of four-laning of the Amritsar-Wagah section of National Highway 1 on built-operate-transfer (BOT) basis at an estimated cost of Rs 207 crore.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under BOT, Investment and Finance, NHAI, Toll Management System, Tolling

Rethink Tolling

October 12, 2006

There’s better road-pricing technology, use it

Recent news reports about the government’s new tolling policy rationale are disturbing. Marginal cost pricing permits tolls only to reduce congestion, but in India, tolls are more a user charge than a traffic management tool. Even so, project viability should not be the primary basis for setting tolls. Sensible public policy on tolls should focus on fostering development, by promoting use of the road, tempered by cost recovery. A key benefit of roads is the large spillover from better connectivity. High user charges would dampen usage and reduce this benefit, and may be self-defeating, even for viability.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under NHDP, Toll Management System, Tolling

Toll to be Delinked from road length

October 12, 2006

NEW DELHI, OCT 12: The government has finalised the toll policy for national highways, with the toll to be based on the cost of construction of roads. The toll will neither be uniform nor be based on the road length as suggested earlier.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under Highway, NHAI, NHDP, Projects, Toll Management System, Tolling

Cabinet to consider NHAI restructuring soon

September 13, 2006

NEW DELHI, SEPT 13: In a bid to bring in more private investment in the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is seeking a complete overhaul of its administrative set up.

NHAI has already sent a corporate restructuring note to the committee on infrastructure stating that it wants greater decision-making autonomy, in order to expedite all highways projects.

Written by ITW Editor · Filed Under NHAI, Toll Management System, Tolling