Driving on busy roads in cities during peak hours is likely to be a costly affair with the Centre suggesting the state governments to consider imposing peak hour congestion charges.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development, which cited that peak hour charges are prevailing in many countries like London and Singapore, said that the move will help de-congest the busy roads besides controlling pollution.
Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Krishna has requested the state governments to identify the most congested areas in their respective cities and study how congestion charges can be imposed.
As transport is a state subject, the Centre wants the states to explore on their own the modalities, including the amount to be charged and where to charge. Initially, states can introduce manual permit/coupon system as was done in Singapore when it was first introduced, Krishna said in his letter.
Though the Ministry officials admitted that imposing congestion charges is a challenging task in India, they said at least the transport officials in state can explore the idea by introducing such system in one or two roads of major cities on pilot basis.
To avoid traffic jams at booths set up to collect such charges, ministry officials said states should adopt SMS based or prepaid payment system based on the vehicle identification through cameras installed in cars.
In London, congestion charge is imposed in city centre using automatic number plate recognition cameras at entry sites of the cities. The system is in place in several cities in Europe, like Stockholm and Milan.
Though several studies have shown that congestion charges have reduced the number of vehicles plying on particular areas, the fact exists that the move faced strong public opposition which led to the withdrawal of charges in several cities after pilot study as in the case of Hong Kong .