NEW DELHI: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Monday said Mumbai is now FASTag ready with three major toll plazas coming under the electronic collection system.
Mumbai's three of the major toll plazas -- Airoli, Mulund Eastern Express Way and Mulund (LBS Marg) -- recently went live on NETC FASTag platform, NPCI said in a release.
NPCI said that Rajiv Gandhi Sea link plaza and Vashi Toll plaza have already enabled the platform, providing seamless, on-the-go toll payments experience.
The implementation work at Dahisar toll plaza is underway and is expected to go live soon, it added.
ICICI Bank is the first bank to integrate with the FASTag technology at plazas at Vashi, Airoli, Mulund Eastern Express Way, Mulund (LBS Marg) and Dahisar.
The bank will continue to work closely with MEP Infrastructure, operator of the toll plazas, to bring in the best practices implemented at national highways, it said further.
NPCI is also expecting all parking lots in the city to gradually adopt 100 per cent smart and contactless parking.
"Implementation of FASTag on nearly all the toll plazas of Mumbai demonstrates awareness and acceptance of FASTag among millions of commuters.
We are also looking at enabling parking lots with FASTag. With gaining momentum of FASTag across the country, we are confident that it will scale newer heights," said Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI.
In November 2020, the transaction count of NETC FASTag stood at 12.48 crore with transaction value Rs 2,102.02 crore, compared to 12.23 crore transactions worth Rs 2,137.16 crore in October 2020, said the release.
"We look forward to enable the Dahisar toll plaza, post metro work completion. This will make Mumbai city the first city to go completely cashless across all tolls. Our next step is to increase the penetration of FASTags. MSRDC requests all commuters to install FASTags on their vehicles and ensure sufficient cash balance in the FASTag," said Vijay Waghmare, JMD, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).
Sudipta Roy, Business Head, ICICI Bank, said the FASTag implementation at these toll plazas is helping millions of commuters to zip through the plazas without stopping to pay toll.
"We are also collaborating with various partners to implement FASTag at malls and airports. As part of this, we are working with NPCI to deploy FASTag-based contactless parking solution at malls and airports across key cities in the country.
We have already implemented this facility at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport," Roy said.
Abhijit Kamalapurkar, Head Transaction Banking, IDFC FIRST Bank, said the onboarding process for FASTag is also made seamless and completely digitised so that commuters can buy tags from the comfort of their homes, expressing pleasure to partner MSRDC and NPCI in this initiative.
NETC FASTag is a simple to use, reloadable tag fixed on the windscreen of a vehicle which enables automatic deduction of toll charges from the linked prepaid or savings account while the vehicle is in motion.
A user receives an SMS alerts on his registered mobile number for all the transactions done in his tag account.
The vehicle with NETC FASTag doesn't need to stop at toll plazas for toll payment, saving fuel and travel time.
These tags can also be purchased at toll plazas, select bank branches and online through e-commerce platforms.
It can be recharged online through all payment channels including BHIM UPI, BBPS and debit, credit cards.