National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Sunday said it has collected Rs 20 crore from 18 lakh defaulters who entered the FASTag lanes at electronic toll plazas on National Highways without the tag. Rolling out the electronic toll collection programme across India in December, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had said that double toll charge would be collected from the vehicles entering FASTag lanes without the tag.

In order to give prime importance to existing FASTag users, dissuade defaulters and further encourage adoption of FASTags by national highways commuters, vehicles without FASTags entering the FASTag lane are being charged double the toll fee, NHAI said in a statement.

"Till now, a total number of 18 lakh vehicles defaulted by encroaching FASTag lanes across India has resulted in a double charge cash toll accumulation of about Rs 20 crore," it said.RFID based FASTag, an electronic toll collection system implemented by the NHAI, has proved to be instrumental in easing the lives of commuters on national highways within two months of its nationwide implementation, it said.

Over 1.55 crore FASTags have been issued through multiple Point of Sale (PoS) locations. NHAI has been observing increased sale rate of FASTags which is a clear indication of this digital system being accepted well, the statement said. As a result, FASTag transaction has crossed a landmark count of 4 million per day, it added. The statement said FASTag resulted in smooth and hassle-free movement of FASTag users on highways.

The implementation of FASTags across the country has met with the desired response so far, it said adding the adoption of FASTags also means that it has brought in the much-needed transparency in collection at toll booths.

In order to further increase digital collection of user fee via FASTag at national highways fee plazas, NHAI has recently waived off the FASTag cost of Rs 100 for NHAI FASTag from February 15, 2020 to February 29, 2020. Any road users can visit any authorised physical point-of-sale locations with a valid Registration Certificate (RC) of the vehicle and get a NHAI FASTag free of cost.#casansaar (Source - PTI, Economic Times)