The government mandated usage of FASTags for payment at tolls across national highway booths on December 15 and on the first day nearly 50 percent of the commuters used FASTags.
According to Hindustan Times, 19.5 lakh transactions were done, garnering a total of Rs 39.5 crore collected through electronic toll payment of FASTags at toll booths out of a total amount of Rs 78.87 crore toll collection. An official told the leading, "There has been a lot of confusion among users on where to get the tags from. We have sold about 9.5 million tags thus far. To meet the demand, we are requesting the banks to sell the tags at toll plazas.”
The NHAI on Monday said that it has kept up to 25 per cent hybrid lanes at 523 toll plazas for cash as well as digital transactions. The National Highway Authority of India commenced electronic toll collection through FASTag at 523 toll plazas across the country from Sunday morning, but the move to keep hybrid lanes was necessitated as "the number of vehicles without FASTag still hover at a high number".
"... Since the number of vehicles without FASTag still hover at a high number, 75 per cent lanes were kept as FASTag lanes and up to 25 per cent lanes were kept as hybrid lanes for cash as well as digital transaction," it said in a statement. The NHAI has also deployed marshals at each toll plaza for smooth traffic regulation.
The government In order to save fuel, time and pollution and to ensure seamless movement of traffic, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has launched National Electronic Toll Collection program (NETC) which provides for collection of user fee through FASTag based on RFID technology, it added.
