To ensure non-stop vehicle movement at toll plazas, the National Highways Authority of India has rolled out cashless payment mechanism, FASTag, at 250 tolls on highways across the country.
FASTag offers near non-stop movement of vehicles through toll plazas and convenience of cashless payments of toll fee with nationwide inter-operable electronic toll collection services.
"FASTag is operational on over 275 toll plazas on national highways across the country," National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said today.
FASTag has a one-time fee of Rs 200 and is affixed on the wind screen of the vehicle.
It employs RFID technology for making toll payments directly from the pre-paid account linked to it. A vehicle using FASTag will use dedicated FASTag lane to have cashless travel.
"FASTag will be available on sale from selected toll plazas on National Highways and designated branches of participating banks from April 25. These can be recharged by making payments through cheque or online through credit card/debit card/NEFT/RTGS or through net-banking," NHAI said.
The minimum recharge amount is Rs 100 and can be up to Rs one lakh in the multiples of Rs 100. FASTag users shall get SMS alerts for all their toll transactions, low balance etc.
"Government has allowed NHAI to give 10 per cent cash back incentive on toll payments in financial year 2016-17 for FASTag users. The cash back amount for a particular month will be credited back to the FASTag account at the beginning of the next month," the statement said.
Use of FASTag shall increase user convenience from payments without stops at toll plazas thus saving on time, money and fuel.
Government is hopeful that online payments shall improve
transparency in toll transactions and reduce revenue leakages.
"Details of participating banks (ICICI and Axis Bank in Phase-I), standard procedure for FASTag users, point of sale locations and frequently asked questions (FAQs) are available on the website of NHAI and IHMCL i.E. Www.Nhai.Org and https://www.Ihmcl.Com/," NHAI said.
In Phase II, it is expected that some other banks and mobile wallet operators will also join this endeavour.
More toll points and points-of-sales will be added soon, it said adding, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is building a national clearing house for efficient handling of inter-operability between banks, toll plaza operators and other entities.
"NHAI is committed to provide safe, smooth and seamless journey to commuters on National Highways," it said adding that implementation of FASTag is one step that will realise this endeavour.
All regional officers and project directors of NHAI all over the country have been instructed to ensure success of this initiative.
