Live piloting of ETC for Padma Bridge to begin September 15

The much-anticipated live piloting of an electronic toll-collection (ETC) system for the Padma Bridge will begin on September 15, in a move towards technology-driven toll management in Bangladesh.

Vehicle registration for availing the service opened on September 1. Mohammad Abdur Rouf, executive director of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) and secretary of the Bridges Division, told the FE that the ETC system would first be introduced for the Padma Bridge, with plans to gradually roll it out for the Jamuna Bridge, Muktarpur Bridge, Karnaphuli Tunnel, and other infrastructure under the BBA.

Users of the bridge will be able to register their vehicles and make advance payments after registration on the app of any of the seven mobile financial service (MFS) providers or 36 banks.

At the toll plaza, cameras will automatically detect vehicle registration numbers, deduct the toll from the linked accounts, and open the gates without requiring manual intervention, said Abdur Rouf.

Officials said the ETC system was discussed at a recent board meeting of the BBA, chaired by Dr Muhammad Fauzul Kabir, adviser to the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry.

The board decided that the ETC system for the Padma Bridge should be launched without any delay, revealed the meeting minutes released last week.

BBA officials said that the system was being implemented under the Access to Information (a2i) programme of the ICT Division in collaboration with Ekpay, a digital payment platform.

Under this arrangement, bridge users will be able to pay tolls through any of the seven mobile financial service (MFS) providers -- including bKash, Rocket, Upay and Nagad -- as well as 36 banks.

Earlier in April, the BBA signed agreements with Pubali Bank PLC, Jamuna Bank PLC, Dutch-Bangla Bank PLC and Nagad, among others, to facilitate toll transactions.

The BBA executive director said the ETC would save working hours at the toll plazas as the system is expected to take no time of the plaza, which will also reduce congestion on connecting roads.

In the future, alongside rolling out the service for other infrastructure, various financial instruments, including Visa cards and MasterCard, will also be integrated into the ETC system.

Another senior official said the necessary infrastructure for the ETC system had already been installed, with hardware, software, app integration, and API connections now in the final stage. Officials noted that the Padma Bridge, constructed at a cost of Tk 307.70 billion, was inaugurated in June 2022.

Since then, the bridge has collected tolls worth Tk 25.99 billion, of which the BBA has repaid Tk17.81 billion to the government for loans.

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