Deadline For Mandatory FASTags Extended To December 15 To Facilitate Sufficient Time

The government on Friday extended the deadline for mandatory FASTags from December 1 to December 15, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. The extension of deadline came after Nitin Gadkari’s announcement last week that those passing through FASTag lanes without tags at toll plazas will be charged twice the toll amount.

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

The National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme, the flagship initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, has been implemented on a pan-India basis in order to remove bottlenecks and ensure seamless movement of traffic and collection of user fee as per the notified rates, using passive radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.

According to Transport Ministry, over 70 Lakh FASTags have been issued by November 27. "Over 70 lakh FASTags have been issued till date, with the highest per-day issuance of 1,35,583 tags on November 26, 2019, (Tuesday), whereas 1.03 lakh tags were issued on the day before. The average daily issuance has grown by 330 per cent from 8,000 in July to 35,000 tags sold in November 2019," the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

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To avoid difficulties at toll plazas, commuters are advised to maintain sufficient balance in the account or wallet linked to FASTag. All the available mode of recharges such as debit card, credit card, net banking and Unified Payments Interface have been enabled for loading money to the FASTag account. A customer may call on the helpline number, ‘1033’, for any assistance related to FASTags, the ministry said and added that they can also reach out to the banks to obtain FASTags.