Russia’s "Platon" Debuts in India! New Tolls Will Help India’s Sprawling Road System Work!

Russian Platon toll system will be launched on one of India's largest motorways, New Delhi — Mumbai. Later, it will be put into operation at every route in the country. The Russian toll system won the open bidding.

Russian Platon toll system will be launched on one of India's largest motorways, New Delhi — Mumbai. Later, it will be put into operation at every route in the country. The Russian toll system won the open bidding.

The following report on how our system will solve the traffic problem in India was done by our staff correspondent Dmitry Melnikov.

 

The world's second longest road network... 3.7 million miles of highways, local roads, rural and forest roads. The authorities decided to turn 2% of highways into toll roads in the early 2000s but the traffic capacity hit its limit last year. The Delhi-Mumbai highway, 930 miles long, is one of the busiest highways in India. More than 100,000 cars pass daily through this very checkpoint. Every year the traffic increases here by an average of 3%.

In the open bidding on digitizing toll collection points, a Russian project won, the one we know as "Platon".

Anand Shenoy, NHAI Adviser: "Every day, 4 to 5 million trucks pass through toll stations throughout the country. This leads to congestion and loss of time. The Russian system ensures non-stop charging."

15 seconds for paying means tens of thousands of hours lost which lead to $14 billion of losses per year. The first 5,000 trucks will be equipped with GLONASS transponders made in Russia. The checkpoints will be equipped with reading devices.

For Russia, this is the first large contract and a major success in the export of the so-called "transport telematics"... The technology is obviously needed throughout the world.

Yevgeny Dietrich, Minister of Transport of Russia: "The export of transport services has already exceeded $17 billion by the end of last year. It's even more than the export of weapons".

Russian engineers will have to adapt Platon to realities of India. First of all, they should upload detailed maps of all roads. Secondly, they are to find a way to take the features of local driving into account which follow the unknown forces of the elements rather than written rules.

Dmitry Melnikov, Ivan Malyshev, Vesti from Delhi, India.