Visa, India Partner To Speed Toll Payments

Visa, the credit card company, announced on Monday (May 15) the launch of India’s first proof-of-concept (PoC) to showcase open loop contactless toll payments at National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) Manesar Toll Plaza.

In a press release, Visa said that once the open loop payment system is commercialized, it could “significantly” reduce congestion and waiting times at toll plazas.

According to Visa, NHAI operates around 400 toll plazas across India’s national highways through which more than 20,000 vehicles pass each day. With vehicles queued up for an average of five to 10 minutes to complete a toll payment, congestion and waiting time at toll plazas account for a significant portion of the USD $21.3 billion India is estimated to lose each year.

“At Visa, we are excited at the opportunity to introduce innovative payment solutions for digital payment and collection facilities at toll plazas across India. Visa payWave — our contactless payment technology — allows users to simply wave and pay using a card or devices like smartphones and is relevant for all modes of transport — metros, buses and the railways as our experience with Transport for London has shown,” said T.R. Ramachandran, Visa’s group country manager, India & South Asia, in a press release.

Visa said Indian Highways Management Company Ltd, a company specifically set up by NHAI to carry out electronic tolling, has commissioned the deployment of the Manesar PoC. A key objective of the PoC is to assess the advantage of contactless payments in increasing the number of vehicles passing through the toll plaza.

“We have partnered with Visa to enable the first-of-its-kind open loop toll payment in India. Once commercialized, the solution will empower travelers to use all bank-issued contactless cards to make toll payments in seconds. We are pleased to work with Visa and NHAI to transform the toll payments space and contribute to a digitized India,” Dr. Rajiv Lall, founder MD & CEO, IDFC Bank, Visa’s acquirer bank partner in the same press release.

Visa said the PoC furthers the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Payment Vision 2018 of moving India to a less–cash society.