Fastag

In what will come as a big relief to commuters on national highways (NHs) the government announced it will bring all 350 toll plazas on the national highways under electronic toll collection (ETC) mechanism by the year-end and also scrap tolling in 45 small stretches — mostly structures such as bridges — next year. Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday kicked off the RFID-based smart tags Fastags for cashless transaction at toll plazas. Vehicles fitted with the interoperable tags don’t need to wait in queue at plazas.
Though the technology was first launched in April 2012 on the 10-km Himalayan Expressway, Gadkari inaugurated the ETC on the Delhi-Mumbai stretch of NH-8 on Friday. This is the longest stretch where ETC is being implemented in a big scale. Gadkari said his ministry has already cancelled toll collection on 27 small stretches. Sources said that government has already recovered the cost of these projects and the present toll collection is even less than the administrative expenses.
Earlier, Gadkari claimed that once all toll plazas come under the ETC mechanism the waiting time will get reduced drastically and this is expected to save Rs.60,000 crore in fuel bills.
Fastag will not only help the government plug revenue leakages from toll collection, it will also help track vehicles in case of criminal incidences. Moreover, the real-time data on traffic movement on highways will help the government in preparing road development plans.
Officials said customers can get Fastags recharged online and can also get instant alerts about usage and balance amount.