BENGALURU: Now, more malls and shopping arcades in Bengaluru are linking their parking accounts with FASTag for quick deduction of money and hassle-free parking for customers.
Mall managements said this was being done to reduce the problem of getting change and avoid long queues. While it has already been adopted in malls like Forum, Nexus and Orion, many others are now following the same concept.
Nandish M R, head of Karnataka Shopping Centre Association, said no special permission from any agency or government was needed for this. No extra charge is levied under this system. The same parking charges are collected. The only addition is that the bank which the FASTag is linked collects a user fee from the mall management. This method of collecting parking charges is now catching up in all malls.
Sunil Munshi, senior vice-president, Orion Mall, said this was also being done in other Indian cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Commuters, however, have the option of paying without using FASTag also.
Officials of road transport and national highways said it is a misconception that FASTag was only for toll collection. “It is like any digital payment card or digital payment app. Consumers are billed on usage. However, with its introduction in malls for payments, the load on the servers and its misuse should also be addressed. There have been complaints of feeding incorrect vehicle numbers when FASTag does not work on toll booths,” an NHAI official said.
