Govt extends mandatory FASTag roll-out date to Dec 15

New Delhi: The government on Friday extended till December 15 the date for making FASTag mandatory for toll payments on national highways.

It said it will now charge double user fee from vehicles entering FASTag lane without FASTag from December 15, instead of December 1.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had earlier announced that toll payments on highways would be accepted through FASTags only from December 1.

FASTag is a prepaid tag, affixed on vehicle's windscreen, that enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets the vehicle pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in a statement said, "... to provide some more time to citizens to buy and put FASTag on their vehicles, it has now been decided that charging of double user fee from vehicles which enter FASTag lane without FASTag will start from December 15, 2019 instead of December 1, 2019."

NHAI said it was decided that all lanes (except one lane on each side) in fee plazas shall be declared as 'FASTag lane of Fee Plaza' by December 1, 2019.

"Accordingly, NHAI has equipped all fee plazas with Electronic Toll Collection System. For ease in availability of FASTag, NHAI has launched MyFASTag app whereby all information regarding FASTag can be obtained along with location of POSs and charging/linking with NHAI/other wallets or bank accounts. However it has been found that many citizens have still not enabled their vehicles with FASTag due to various reasons," the statement said. In order to save fuel, time and pollution and to ensure seamless movement of traffic, MoRTH has launched National Electronic Toll Collection program (NETC) which provides for collection of user fee through FASTag based on RFID technology, it added.

FASTag will continue to be provided free of cost till December 15, an official of NHAI said.

NETC programme, the flagship initiative of MoRTH, has been implemented on a pan-India basis in order to remove bottlenecks and ensure seamless movement of traffic and collection of user fee as per the notified rates, using passive radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

The Ministry had earlier said that 537 toll plazas have become 100 per cent electronic toll collection compliant, including 17 where FASTags will be read through hand-held devices.