To ensure compliance, CCTV footage capturing the Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) will be recorded for vehicles without affixed FASTags.
New Delhi: In a bid to streamline toll collection and deter National Highway users from avoiding the mandatory FASTag affixation, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has implemented stringent guidelines. The NHAI has introduced measures to collect double user fees from individuals entering toll lanes without affixed FASTags on their front windshields. This move aims to address the issue of unnecessary delays at toll plazas, which inconvenience other highway users.
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Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) have been disseminated to all User Fee Collection Agencies and Concessionaires, instructing them to enforce double user fees for vehicles without FASTags affixed on the front windshields. Furthermore, prominent displays at toll plazas will inform users about the penalties for non-compliance.
To ensure compliance, CCTV footage capturing the Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) will be recorded for vehicles without affixed FASTags. This measure not only aids in maintaining accurate records of fees charged but also monitors vehicle presence in the toll lane.
This information will also be prominently displayed at all toll plazas so that highway users know about the penalties for non-compliance of entering a toll lane without a fixed FASTag on front windshield, NHAI further said.
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NHAI is committed to upholding established rules by enforcing standard procedural guidelines for FASTag affixation on the front windshields of vehicles. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in vehicles being ineligible for Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) transactions, leading to double toll fees and potential blacklisting.
Additionally, issuer banks have been instructed to affix FASTags to vehicles’ front windshields during issuance from various Point-of-Sale (POS) locations.
NHAI collects user fee on National Highways as per the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. At present, user fee is collected for approximately 45,000 km of National Highways and Expressways at around 1,000 Toll Plazas on National Highways across the country.
With penetration rate of around 98 percent and over 8 crore users, FASTag has revolutionized the Electronic Toll Collection system in the country. This initiative of charging double user fee from non-affixation of FASTag will help to make toll operations more efficient and ensure seamless & comfortable journey for the National Highway users.
GPS-based toll collection
In January, Mint reported that the union government would soon begin testing GPS-based toll collections on five to 10 highways. GPS tolling, which is faster and more efficient, is expected to ultimately replace the existing FASTag-based tolling system.
The new system will be piloted on limited highway stretches before it is rolled out nationwide, roads ministry secretary Anurag Jain said.
“Highway developer National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on satellite- or GPS-based tolling that would introduce a more equitable way of collecting tolls on highways. There are a few concerns on the new system that would be addressed and the learnings from initial projects would make way for devising a foolproof system of tolling that would later be available on more and more highway stretches,” Jain said.
