Mandatory FASTag implementation by 15th Dec 2019 – The ministry of road transport and highways has further relaxed the mandatory FASTags lane at NHAI toll plazas by 30 days. In a statement the ministry official said that at least 75% toll lanes at toll plazas in the country must have electronic toll collection, temporarily relaxing an earlier mandate for 100% electronic toll collection (ETC) on National highways. The ministry said that this was a temporary measure to be adopted for 30 days only to facilitate smooth flow of traffic, and avoid inconvenience to users.
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The ministry on November 29, provided a two weeks’ extension for the rollout, which begins on Sunday, December 15. It was earlier decided that one hybrid lane will be allowed at every toll plaza to facilitate and monitor over dimensional or over-sized vehicles where FASTag and other modes of payment will be accepted and that it will be eventually phased out.
“Depending on the traffic pile up at high traffic volume fee plazas, not more than 25% ‘FASTag lane of fee plaza,’ may be temporarily converted to hybrid lanes,” the ministry told NHAI in a fresh communication. It should be ensured that the least possible number of the declared FASTag lanes be converted into hybrid lanes temporarily and further that at least 75% lanes of every fee plaza remain declared and operational as FAStag lanes in order to incentivize the vehicles carrying FASTag, the ministry further said.
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The FASTags are RFID based technology for automatic collection of toll charges through network of payment via FASTags stickers affixed on vehicle windscreens. This would enable toll to be debited from a linked wallet account, without requiring vehicles to stop for transactions. Major banks in India are selling the FASTags through their branches/sales centre.