Why FASTag Is mandatory from december 1 for all vehicles and what govt wants to do

The Government of India has mandated FASTag for all the vehicles operating on the Indian roads with effect from December 1, 2019. FASTag is the electronic toll collection system innovated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

A note posted by NPCI on its website observes, "FASTag offers the convenience of cashless payment along with benefits like - savings on fuel and time as the customer does not have to stop at the toll plaza."

Talking about FASTag, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways said that FASTag is being viewed as the 'Aadhaar' for all vehicles operating in the nation. He also added that the existing infrastructure can support more than six million tags which will be able to carry out about 10 lakh transactions per day.

Why the government wants to move to FASTag system?

FASTag is yet another move towards increasing the volume of digital transactions and reducing the handling of paper money. FASTag will rule out the need for long queues and wastage of time while the vehicles need not have to wait for making cash transactions at the toll plazas. Shortening the queues and waiting time will also mean lessening the air pollution. FASTag is also a way of easy vehicle identification system the system will give a unique identification number to every vehicle for its lifetime.

What the government is doing about FASTag?

For testing purposes, FASTag system was launched in 2014 and it has been steadily expanding since then to cover more vehicles. However, the government has recently notified that from December 1, 2019, all the National Highways in India will collect toll payments through FASTag technology only.

FASTag is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology. The toll collection booths across the country are now fast equipping themselves with electronic toll collection infrastructure (ETC) for supporting the vehicles equipped with FASTag. The government has also partnered with 23 banks in the country to issue FASTag to the vehicles running on Indian roads including State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank. NHAI has also partnered with Amazon and PayTM to distribute the FASTags quickly to as many vehicles as possible.

How does the FASTag system work?

Based on the Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID), the system will facilitate the toll plazas collect the toll payment through digital means while the vehicle is in motion through the dedicated lanes that are specially equipped with the necessary supporting infrastructure. The toll charges will be debited directly from the prepaid or savings account of the vehicle owner. The vehicles need to affix the FASTag RFID tag onto their windscreen. The toll payments will be automatically initiated when the vehicle passes through the NETC supported toll plaza. The government has also provided the option of integrating the existing savings or current bank account with FASTag for the purpose of facilitating seamless payments on toll plazas.