Get tagged, skip queues
FASTag is an electronic toll collection system. Commuters who use FASTags will get a 10 per cent cashback till March 2020. Commuters who do not have FASTags, will be charged double to cross the NH toll booth, but officials say penalties will not be imposed from Day 1. However, only one lane at NHAI toll plazas will handle cash transactions so queues could occur. Although FASTags are not mandatory at State highway toll booths, this may change by March ’20. You can get your FASTag at franchises of 21 banks through sales counters near toll plazas and online. Basic details like name, contact number, vehicle registration number and a copy of registration certificate have to be given at time of purchase.
Fear not, assures NHAI
What about people who pass through a tollgate twice in the 24 hours?
A senior staff of the Kaniyur Toll Plaza assures that such commuters won’t be charged extra and need to pay only single fee. “With a FASTag, if a vehicle returns within 24 hours, only half the entry fee will automatically be deducted,” the staff said.
Will automation lead to unemployment at toll plazas?
Officials say layoffs, if any, will not be immediate as every lane will still require a person on duty in case the FASTags cannot be read or if there is a technical problem.
Farmers, who are currently exempted from paying fees at local toll plazas will still be able to cross the plaza with their Kisan cards?
NHAI officials say farmers will have to link their Kisan cards with FASTag by contacting the nearest toll plazas. NHAI will not give separate notification for farmers.
What about private company employees who have been given concessions on toll fees? Such workers say they have been told to link their monthly card with FASTag. Will money be deducted from their accounts every month regardless of usage?
As per the system, the FASTag is recharged only when money is transferred from your bank account. There will be no automatic transfer of money to your FASTag account.
The logistics sector has complained that its has experiences of wrong deductions in the FASTag system and has struggled to get the money back.
NHAI maintains that in case of erroneous deduction of money, the user has to lodge a complaint within 15 days from the date of deduction. The electronic payment system has already been upgraded to avoid duplicate/wrong deduction of money.
Wrong deductions, bad experiences
M R Kumarasami, chief of TN lorry owner association, points out some of the difficulties in getting back money mistakenly deducted in FASTag system. “For instance, a lorry owner of Vilathikulam in Thoothukudi was affected by the multiple deductions from the FASTag account. On October 8, 2018, when his three lorries crossed a toll plaza in Andhra Pradesh, a sum was deducted from the FASTag account. On November 8, 2018, the same charge was deducted again even though the lorries hadn’t used the toll plaza. In fact, the lorries were parked at his native place. He had to write multiple letters to the bank and toll plaza to get the money back. It took two months,” he said.
State National Highways
The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company, a separate venture of the State highways department, has 11 toll gates on the ECR, OMR and link roads. There is FASTag enabled in two lanes each in the six toll plazas. However, this FASTag cannot be used in NHAI toll gates.
TNRDC and NHAI are in discussion to allow NHAI FASTags to be used in TNRDC toll gates and vice versa. But no agreement has been reached so far. Meanwhile, three toll gates on Madurai Ring Road, under control of the Tamil Nadu Road Infrastructure Development Corporation, will also be getting FASTag payment options in December.
What about TN Govt vehicles?
While the public is being urged to convert their payment method from cash to FASTags, the government machinery, which has a large number of vehicles, seems clueless. For instance, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), which owns 22,300 buses, has no plan to adapt to ETC from December 1.
A Anbu Abraham, Managing Director of TNSTC (Coimbatore), said the corporation is yet to arrive at any decision on shifting to ETC method of payment. Currently, the corporation pays toll by cheque, on either a half-yearly or annual basis, to the concerned toll plaza management.
According to the corporation, they have already made payment for most of their vehicles to March 2020. So, till then toll plazas will need to operate even dedicated FASTags lanes in a manual mode to permit passage of public transport vehicles. If the buses are restricted to the only non-FASTag lane it would take longer to cross the plaza.
Similarly, there is no clarity on how the toll plaza management will handle government vehicles attached to district administrations and various government departments that do not have FASTags.
K Rajamani, Coimbatore District Collector, said that so far the administration had no plan of attaching FASTags on government vehicles as such vehicles currently are exempted from toll. But, the NHAI notification did not mention an exemption for government vehicles.
TRAFFIC JAMS IN TN ON DAY 1?
Going by NHAI’s data as of November 18, the toll plazas are prepared. However, only about a third of vehicles passing through NHAI toll gates in the State have bought FASTags. If the numbers don’t rise considerably by December 1, there is a potential for traffic jams at NHAI toll plazas across the State, especially if the agency sticks to its plan of restricting cash-transactions to a single lane. Here is what the figures show:
Fast Facts
FASTag wasfirst introduced on a trial run basis between Mumbai and Ahmedabadin 2014
A minimum of `100 is needed in the FASTag wallet to usethe card
In 2015, the method was fully implemented between Chennai and Bengaluru
In November 2016, the Government of India mandated that all new vehicles must feature FASTags on their windscreens and automobile manufacturers were asked to provide the same
30%
On an average payments being made through
FASTag in NHAI toll gates in TN
6.12 lakh
Total number of vehicles passing through NHAI toll gates in TN as on
November 17