The launch of electronic toll collection system, or FASTag, has been postponed to December 15, senior government officials said. Earlier, the government had planned to roll out FASTag across all national highways and select state highways from December 1.

"To facilitate sufficient lead time to citizens to obtain FASTag, it has now been decided that all lanes in the fee plazas shall be declared FASTag lane of Fee Plaza’ by December 15, 2019," an official order stated.

A FASTag is an electronic toll collection system whereby the toll fee will be instantly debited from the FASTag fixed on the windshield of a passenger. This is expected to enable a smooth flow of traffic and reduce pollution.

As per the earlier plan, one lane will be kept as a hybrid which will accept cash and cashless mode of transaction. Last week, union road minister Nitin Gadkari directed NHAI to issue FASTags free of cost to people till December 1.

More than 70 lakh FASTags have been issued since until Wednesday, with the highest daily issuance at 1,35,583 tags. Up to 1.03 lakh tags were issued on November 25 alone. The average daily issuance of FASTag has also risen to 35,000 FASTags in November from 8,000 in July.

As of last week, around 430 toll plazas were ready with the FASTag infrastructure, sources had told CNBC-TV18.

According to the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, a FASTag lane in a toll plaza is reserved exclusively for the movement of FASTag users.

The radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based FASTag is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle. It allows for direct payment of fee from the prepaid or savings account linked to it and enables vehicles to drive through without stopping for transactions.

However, it is found that currently, even non-FASTag users are passing through FASTag lanes and making cash payments. This is leading to crowding of such lanes and overall traffic congestion at the plaza, defeating the purpose of the FASTags. As a result, electronic toll collection through FASTags has not grown as much as was desired.

First Published:Nov 29, 2019 7:33 PM IST