Govt relaxes FASTag rollout mandate, at least 75% toll lanes must collect fee electronically from December 15

NEW DELHI: The ministry of road transport and highways has 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.
In a letter sent to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in July this year, the highways ministry had asked for conversion of all toll lanes at all national highways to 'FASTag lanes December 1st onwards, a move that will make travel through toll plazas seamless and also remove congestion.

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 on Saturday.

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.

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.

Introduced in 2014, the RFID-based FASTags affixed on vehicle windscreens would enable toll to be debited from a linked account, without requiring vehicles to stop for transactions.