10pc discount for ETC users

The government has introduced a 10 per cent discount on toll rates of vehicles which will be paid electronically to cross bridges on roads and highways aiming at smooth and faster vehicle movement and cashless transactions.
Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD) in a notification (PORIPATRA) issued on Monday said transports using the fast track lane of toll plaza of bridges under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) will enjoy a 10 per cent incentive on toll rates.
The incentive announcement came before the start of holiday journeys on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr when rush of traffic on roads and highways gets the highest in the country.
The division hopes that with the incentive, transport users would be encouraged to use the ETC lane for speedy crossing and avoiding long queues of manually operated vehicles.
The RHD introduced the electronic toll collection system (ETC) in the toll plaza of major 10 bridges in 2019 with a lukewarm response by the transport users during the last two years.
The division, however, sought the Finance Ministry's permission to provide a 15 per cent incentive for the ETC lane users to encourage them to use the fast track lane. This would also stop pilferage of toll money making it a cashless counter.
The ETC system requires registering an app with information of vehicles such as blue book, national identification number etc., which get activated when the vehicle passes the lane automatically making the payment with Nexus system.
The Dhaka-Chattogram highway gets the highest ever traffic with 50,000-60,000 vehicles every day, but its toll plaza of Meghna and Gumti received hardly 4,000 vehicles as ETC users till now.

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