One Nation One Tag- FASTag: No more congestion at toll plazas in Uttar Pradesh! With an aim to ensure seamless traffic on state highways and national highways crisscrossing Uttar Pradesh, the FASTag system will be implemented from December 1 as the central government has been focussing on ‘One Nation One Tag’. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between National Highways Authority of Indian (NHAI) and Uttar Pradesh Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) in this regard.
In consonance with the central government’s emphasis on cashless digitisation of the payment system, NHAI had started a cashless digitised system of toll collection under the name of National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) system. It has also created a subsidiary entity named Indian Highways Management Company Ltd. (IHMCL). IHMCL has been managing the NETC – FASTag system, according to a UPEIDA document acquired seen by Financial Express Online.
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UPEIDA became the first state agency to sign an MoU with IHMCL for NETC and adopted the FASTag mechanism for toll plazas on the Agra–Lucknow Expressway. Now, UPEIDA has decided to implement the NETC – FASTag on all its forthcoming expressways – Gorakhpur Link Expressway, Purvanchal Expressway, Bundelkhand Expressway right from the beginning of the toll collection process, the UPEIDA document states.
The Central government has been pitching for ‘One Nation One Tag’ so that a single FASTag could work for all the expressways and highways across India. This will ensure any vehicle passing through different highways of NHAI and expressways and highways of state authorities can pay the toll as per the respective prevailing rates using one FASTag only. With FASTag mode of payment, respective agencies would receive the toll revenue in their acquirer bank accounts on real-time basis.
Earlier this year, the central government announced that all lanes at toll plazas on national highways will be regarded as ‘FASTag lanes’ from December 1. However, the central government said that there will be one ‘hybrid lane’ at every toll plaza. Through this lane at toll plazas, over-sized or over-dimensional vehicles will be monitored. At this lane, along with FASTag, other modes of payment will be accepted.
What is FASTag?
FASTag is basically a prepaid tag. Through this FASTag system, toll charges will be deducted. However, vehicles won’t need hal for the cash transaction at the toll plazas. The central government said that this mechanism would address issues of traffic jams at toll plazas. The FASTag will also promote the faster payment of fees through the digital mode.
The radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based FASTag is affixed on the windscreen of a vehicle. A prepaid or saving account is linked with the RFID-based FASTag.
