This is Manoj Kumar’s third visit to a point-of-sale (POS) at Kherki Daula toll plaza office here on Wednesday over the last ten days to buy a FASTag for his car. Commuting between his workplace and home, he crosses the toll twice a day and is jittery with just three days to go before FASTags are made mandatory at all National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) toll plazas from December 1.
“I took a few hours break from my office to come here and buy a FASTag. But the tags were in short-supply on my first two visits. The tags are available today [Wednesday], but now I found that copies of PAN, Aadhaar and registration certificate must all belong to the vehicle’s owner. The vehicle belongs to my wife, but I brought the copies of my PAN and Aadhaar. Now I need to come again tomorrow for the fourth time,” grinned Mr. Kumar. He rued the lack of information to motorists about the documents and procedure and non-availability of the tags.
tag
A resident of Ropar, Mr. Kumar had also enquired about the FASTags from three POSs — the petrol pumps mentioned in the My FASTag app during his visit to Punjab earlier this month — but none of them had the tags. “In fact, they told me that they never had the supply of tags,” claimed Mr. Kumar.
In disarray
The toll plaza office presents a chaotic scene with confused and hassled motorists huddled around or standing in queues at the counters waiting for their turns to buy tags. “It took me around one-and-a-half-hour to buy the tag. Now I don’t know where to paste it in the car,” said DLF Phase-III resident Anil Kumar, 65, a former Survey of India employee.
While many were not carrying the passport size photographs to be attached with the documents, a few, especially the elderly, had difficulty in filling the details online through their mobile phones. Pawan Kumar, who works at Bhiwadi, said he could not find any POS in Delhi. He stays in East Punjabi Bagh.
Sumit Kaushik owns a fleet of trucks, but had to return disappointed since the tags for commercial vehicles were not available. Many of the buyers were also confused about different bankers — ICICI, IDFC First, Paytm and Airtel — supplying tags at different prices.
ICICI representative Rakesh Kumar said the rush had increased over the last 4-5 days and he was selling around 60-70 tags every day. He conceded that the waiting time was long due to frequent slowing down of server and short supply of tags.
Rajendra Bhati, project head of Skylark, the company that operates the toll, said Kherki Daula was the busiest. Around 85,000 vehicles cross the toll daily and is the most sensitive among all NHAI toll plazas. Hence all eyes are on this toll plaza to see how the plan is rolled out.
In a bid to create awareness among the motorists on the new rule, the toll authorities have been making regular announcements through public address system, putting up hoardings, distributing pamphlets and also printed the information on the toll receipts, but certain issues remain.
Trial flopped
Several trials have also been conducted at the toll beginning November 6, dedicating a few of the lanes to FASTag users for a few hours, but it had resulted in huge chaos. “Of the 14 lanes on Delhi-Jaipur carriageway, we dedicated five lanes to FASTag vehicles around noon on Thursday, but the traffic piled up in no time. We had to then abort the trial. What would the situation be if all lanes are dedicated to FASTag users is anyone’s guess,” wondered Mr. Bhati.
The free passage facility granted to around 17,000 vehicles of 31 villages remains another vexed issue. Hari Ram, a Shikhopur resident, said they had to frequent the city many times a day and it would be a financial burden for them if they are made to pay the toll fee. It should be noted that the scuffle between the locals and the toll collectors are a routine at Kherki Daula.
NHAI Project Director Ashok Sharma said necessary changes would be made in the software to ensure that vehicles of villagers fitted with FASTags are allowed to pass without deduction of toll fee and hoped that the system would be in place before December 1. He added that PassTags, issued by Millennium City Expressways Private Limited (MCEPL), would also be valid for the time being.
