India’s extensive road network, peppered with thousands of manual tollbooths, often suffers from traffic congestion due to slow processing times. In response, Calsoft, an Indian-American technology firm, has unveiled a cutting-edge automated toll system that integrates NVIDIA technology with the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Historically, drivers faced an average wait time of 8 minutes at toll plazas in 2018-19. The introduction of FASTags in 2020-21 and 2021-22 reduced this wait time dramatically to just 47 seconds. Despite these advancements, traditional tollbooths still present obstacles, particularly due to the diverse range of license plates in India, which vary in color, size, font, and language.
Calsoft’s new system addresses these challenges by employing advanced technology to read license plates and process payments through UPI accounts automatically. This innovation minimizes the need for manual toll collection and helps alleviate traffic congestion. The technology, which is currently undergoing trials in several metropolitan areas, boasts an impressive accuracy rate of approximately 95% in plate recognition.
Vipin Shankar, Senior Vice President of Technology at Calsoft, highlighted the complexities faced during development: “Night-time detection posed particular difficulties. Additionally, enhancing model accuracy amidst environmental distortions such as fog, heavy rain, sunlight reflections, and dust was a significant challenge.”
The system utilizes NVIDIA’s Metropolis for tracking, Triton for AI model management, and DeepStream for real-time data processing. With the support of NVIDIA Jetson modules and A100 GPUs, the new toll system is poised to accommodate future growth and evolving traffic patterns, enhancing toll collection efficiency across India’s roadways.
In parallel, Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari has announced plans to transition to a GPS-based toll system to further refine toll collection processes. This new system will leverage cameras on highways to capture number plate information and calculate tolls based on the distance traveled, replacing the current FASTag RFID technology used at toll plazas.
In June, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) called for bids from international companies to develop this satellite-based tolling system. “To offer a seamless and barrier-free tolling experience, the Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL), supported by NHAI, has issued a Global Expression of Interest (EOI) for the development and implementation of a GNSS-based Electronic Toll Collection system in India,” stated NHAI.
Gadkari has also projected a significant increase in toll revenue, from ₹40,000 crore to ₹1.40 lakh crore within the next two to three years, underscoring the transformative potential of these advancements in toll collection technology.
Related topics:
Ai Vs RPA: What Is the Difference Between Them?
What Are Some Robust Modeling Techniques to Handle Noisy Data?