New Delhi (NVI): In order to promote seamless movement, decongest the fee plazas and for promoting digital payments, Government has decided that all the lanes in the National Highway fee plazas shall be declared as ‘FASTag lane of the Fee Plaza’ from 1st December 2019 except one lane on either side which shall be kept as Hybrid lane.
This information was given by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
FASTag is an upcoming electronic toll collection system in India, operated by the National Highway Authority of India. It employs Radio Frequency Identification technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it or directly toll owner.
It is affixed on windscreen of vehicles. FASTag-affixed vehicles do not have to stop at toll gates as charges are deducted from the prepaid or bank account when the vehicle is moving.
Drivers do not have to stop their vehicle to make transactions as the toll collection will be done electronically under the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme.
According to the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, a FASTag lane in a toll plaza is reserved exclusively for the movement of FASTag users. If you are passing without FASTag, you will be charged double the fee.
Besides select bank branches and point-of-sale at toll plazas of national highways, selected bank branches, FASTags can be bought online through e-commerce portals.
After you buy it, you need to activate it by entering details in My FASTag mobile app. After that, you need to link the tag to an existing bank account for deduction of toll tax.
-sb
