Cost Benefit Analysis of Toll Collection System (Borkhedi and Panjari Toll Plaza)

Toll plazas are essential for funding highway infrastructure, but they often become bottlenecks causing long delays, fuel waste, and driver frustration. This study compares the existing Electronic Toll Collection (ETC/FASTag) system with a proposed GPS-based distance-tolling system at two busy plazas in Maharashtra—Borkhedi and Panjari. Using real traffic data, queue time measurements, and fuel consumption models, we found that GPS-based tolling cuts vehicle delay by nearly 90%, saves over 1.3 million liters of fuel annually, and reduces waiting time by more than 698,000 hours per year. The total fuel cost saving alone exceeds ₹144 million annually. Although GPS requires higher initial investment, the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) clearly exceeds 1, proving its economic viability. This paper presents a practical, data-driven case for upgrading India’s tolling infrastructure to a distance-based GPS model.