Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Monday said that a dedicated lane for FASTag enabled vehicles has been operationalised at all toll plazas on national highways across the country from Friday, Press Trust of India reported. The step has been taken to facilitate hassle-free passage for the FASTag enabled vehicles. “NHAI achieved the first milestone in electronic toll collection when it operationalised one dedicated FASTag lane at all toll plazas from today. Now FASTag enabled vehicles can cruise through the dedicated FASTag lane without stopping at toll plazas on national highways,” the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. PTI reports that FASTag is a RFID tag available both online and offline through banks and common service centres. NHAI had launched two mobile applications last month for ease of obtaining FASTags. “Thousands of road users have downloaded the applications and purchased FASTags in less than two weeks. The penetration of FASTag has increased to 18 per cent as on August 31, 2017,” PTI quoted agency as saying. As per the report, the government has made it mandatory that the new vehicles being sold with effect from October 1, 2017, will be affixed with active FASTag.
The statement said that the “FASTag Partner App” will help more than 6,000 dealers in the country and facilitate them the access to a single platform and activate the FASTag at the time of delivery of the vehicle. In addition, the authority has even started a number of awareness campaigns to make road users aware of the FASTag and its benefits. “NHAI officers have been tasked to visit toll plazas personally and ensure operationalisation of single dedicated electronic toll collection lane. NHAI plans that as penetration of FASTag increases, more and more lanes will be dedicated to ETC,” the statement said as per PTI.