New Delhi: Union highways and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said that FASTag in vehicles will be mandatory to cross toll booths after four months.
While replying to a discussion on demands for grants for the road transport and highways ministry in the Lok Sabha, Mr Gadkari said that though tolls cannot be removed, but passing through them can be made easy through these FASTag for electronic toll collection.
He added people need to pay toll if they want good roads and the money collected from areas that have the capacity to pay is utilised for building roads in rural and hilly areas.
“Toll zindagi bar band nahi ho sakta... Kam zyaada ho saktha hai. Toll ka jaanamdata mein hoon... (Toll system can never end though the rates may vary from time to time,” Mr Gadkari said while adding “If you want good services, you have to pay for it. Government does not have money.” However, the minister said that his ministry is considering exempting school buses and state transport buses from tolls.
Talking about road accidents and crashes on highways, Mr Gadkari said his ministry has identified 786 black spots out of which 300 such spots have been corrected and urged the Members of Parliament (MP) to identify such spots in their constituencies and work to improve them to bring down accident rates.
He also blamed poor road engineering, tyre technology and unskilled drivers among the reasons for crashes. In this context he mentioned use of nitrogen in tyres to prevent accidents.
