Mandatory FASTag for Vehicles from February 15, No Deadline Extension: Nitin Gadakri

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FASTag uses RFID for transactions at the toll booths. The main benefit and reason for the usage of FAStags is that it will reduce that traffic at toll gates.

The Central government has been increasing the last date of FASTag implementation since a long time. However, in a recent meeting, the Union Road And Transport minister of India, Nitin Gadkari clearly mentioned that there will be no more extension for the implementation. According to a report,the last date of getting a FAStag for your vehicle will be February 15.

He, while addressing questions of the media, said that by December 2020, 73.36% people registered with FASTag, as opposed to 44.31% in 2019. It has also been revealed by the minister that the monthly toll collected through FASTag stands at Rs 2,088.26 crore.

FASTag uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFIDO) for transactions at the toll booths. The tag is pasted on the front windscreen of the car and whenever a vehicle crosses any tollbooth, the gates open automatically after the RFID scans the information on the FasTag. The main benefit and reason for the usage of FAStags are that it will reduce that traffic at toll gates. In order to make sure that more and more people choose FAStag over other modes, toll booths have stopped taking payment in cash. Only one lane on each side has been marked for cash payments. Further, to minimise cases of fraud, the National Highways Authority of India has made a rule that the cars entering FAStag lane without the tag will be charged twice the amount of toll.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had earlier said that the deadline for putting FAStag would be January 2021. However, that date got extended so that people could get more time. The reason why the process of cash transaction cannot be eliminated is that it is a legal tender and a legal mode of transaction. Officials of NHAI have time and again mentioned that the easiest way to implement this result is by enforcing the Motor Vehicle Rule. According to that, FASTag has been made mandatory in every new vehicle.