FASTag ensures highway toll payments are automatic and smooth, hence saving commute time
The automatic toll plaza payment system FASTag will become mandatory from today midnight, the centre said on Sunday in a statement. Those who don't install FASTag in their vehicles or have a tag that does not work will have to pay twice the fee for the category of the vehicle they are driving.
To ensure smooth transition to the FASTag system, the government said all fee lanes in toll plazas on National Highways will be able to read the tags.
"Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided that all lanes in the fee plazas on National Highways shall be declared as FASTag lane of the fee plaza w.e.f midnight of 15th/16th February 2021.Therefore, as per NH Fee Rules 2008, any vehicle not fitted with FASTag or vehicle without valid, functional FASTag entering into the FASTag lane of the fee plaza shall pay a fee equivalent to two times of the fee applicable to that category," the government's Press Information Bureau said in a statement on Sunday.
The government said the complete migration to FASTag will help promote fee payment through digital mode, reduce waiting time and fuel consumption, and provide for a seamless passage through fee plazas.
The Transport Ministry had mandated FASTag in "M and N" categories of vehicles. "M" category stands for a vehicle with at least four wheels used for carrying passengers. And category "N" stands for a vehicle with four wheels used for carrying goods as well as passengers.
Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said deadline for using FASTag would not be extended and vehicle owners should immediately use the e-payment facility.
FASTag was introduced in 2016. Mr Gadkari said the government had extended the FASTag registration date limit several times before, and now it would not be extended anymore.
FASTag registration has gone up to 90 per cent on some routes and only 10 per cent people are left, news agency PTI reported.