FASTag Rules- Big update for FASTag users. If you also travel on the highway and use Fastag, then a new update has come for you. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has taken a big step to ensure smooth functioning at toll plazas and to prevent misuse of Fastag. NHAI said on Friday that it has further tightened its policy to prevent the use of ‘loose Fastag’ i.e. Fastag without being stuck on the windshield of the vehicle. The process of immediately blacklisting such Fastag has been strengthened.
NHAI says that some people deliberately do not stick the Fastag on the glass of the vehicle and use it by holding it in hand. This causes jam at the toll plaza, the problem of wrong chargeback occurs and there is a disruption in the electronic toll collection system. This not only causes delay at the toll plaza, but other highway travelers also have to face trouble.
To deal with this problem, NHAI has instructed toll collection agencies and concessionaires to immediately complain about such ‘loose fastag’. A special email ID has also been given for this. NHAI said that as soon as such a complaint is received, they will take immediate action and blacklist or hotlist the concerned fastag.
NHAI says that this step is also necessary because it is going to start new schemes like Annual Pass System and Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) tolling soon. For these, the authenticity of Fastag and reliability of the system is very important. It is worth noting that recently the government had announced that now Fastag will not be limited to paying toll tax only. The government is now making it useful for many things like parking fees, traffic challan, insurance premium and electric vehicle (EV) charging. This will not only save people’s time, but the payment system will also become more smart and convenient.
For this, about 11 crore Fastag have been issued by the banks so far, and the government wants them to be used for more purposes so that people can get many services from a single platform.