Indian Roads Congress-2015 begins in Bhubaneswar

Smart card system in NH tollgates in State soon

--Govt to emphasise on building of cement roads

BHUBANESWAR: Now the commuters of the State need not to stop their vehicles near the National Highway (NH) toll gates to tender tax by leaving other vehicles in a beeline on the road. Introduction of new smart card system at the automated toll gates would solve the problem, said the officials at the Indian Roads Congress’s (IRC) platinum jubilee celebration here on Sunday.

IRC president Sunil Bhowmik said they would introduce smart card system for the vehicles to pay their toll tax in a smart way. In the first phase, the facilities would be installed in the Rourkela-Sambalpur road in Odisha, he added. 

IRC’s State Steering Committee Chairman and Works Department Secretary Nalini Kanta Pradhan said they would upgrade the existing software at the toll gates and introduce a new method through which sensors would automatically capture a vehicle’s license plate and debit the toll from the vehicle owner’s smart card account.

“There is no need to pay cash and wait for receipt from the employees of the toll gate which is time consuming. The censors fixed at the tollgate would do all these works smartly,” Pradhan said and added that it would facilitate smooth traffic flow on the roads. 

Pradhan said the new system would be used in the Rourkela-Sambalpur road corridor by the end of the year. 

Director General of Roads SN Das briefing the media persons said the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways would construct cement concrete roads to increase life span of the road to over 30 years. “Life span of bituminous road is 15 years and needs attention for repair within four to five years, but the cement concrete roads last longer and don’t seek attention for its repair within 10-15 years,” said Das, adding, “So the Ministry would focus on concrete cement roads in the country.” 

About the IRC’s objective, IRC Secretary General SS Nahar said the five-day long conference would discuss mainly on five things, road safety and minimising of accidental hazards, construction and maintenance of roads and bridges in a modern way, safety of environment and to promote the use of standard specifications and to propose specifications.    

Around 4000 participants of civil infrastructure professionals, members of IRC and renowned highway and bridge engineering experts from the State and the Central Government, public and private sector organisations across India and abroad would attend the five-day long technical and commercial sessions in the congress, said the IRC president.