VISAKHAPATNAM/VIJAYAWADA: FASTag, aimed at encouraging digital payments and ensuring seamless passage of vehicles at toll plazas, came into force at all toll plazas on the national highways across the State on Sunday.
While 75 per cent of the lanes at toll plazas are dedicated FASTag lanes, 25 per cent are hybrid lanes where both cash payment and FASTag will be allowed. Barring some technical glitches at Keesara plaza on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway, the switch over to online transaction was a smooth affair, officials said.
On day one, there was not much problem though there was only one lane for non-FASTag vehicles at most of the toll plazas, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Visakhapatnam, project director P Shiva Sankar said.
Speaking to TNIE, Sankar said they were closely monitoring the situation at toll plazas. Nodal officials were appointed at all toll plazas to coordinate and marshals were deployed to guide vehicles into specific lanes. "We have noticed faster movement of vehicles having FASTag sticker," he added.
FASTag, originally scheduled to be launched from December 1, was deferred to December 15 by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways following a request to provide sufficient time to people to obtain the stickers. Sankar said they undertook a trial run for the past two days and they did not face much problem on day one. There are eight toll plazas between Ichchapuram and Anakapalle.
The officials can convert some of the dedicated FASTag lanes into hybrid ones if there is heavy traffic in the hybrid lane. Over 65 per cent of vehicles in the region have FASTag stickers and the officials hope that the rest of the vehicles will migrate to FASTag soon.
Points of sale have been set up to issue FASTag stickers at all fee plazas. Sankar added that though there is provision to penalise non-FASTag vehicles if they enter FASTag lines, they will not impose fines for at least a few days.
The NHAI officials in Krishna district arranged two lanes each at five fee plazas in the district — Pottipadu (NH-16) Kalaparru (NH-16) Keesara (NH-65) Damuluru (NH-65) and Badava (NH-30) — for online transaction.
NHAI project director M Vidya Sagar said that from Sunday two special lanes for paying toll through cash and the other for FASTag were arranged near the toll plazas across the district. With this, the vehicles not having FASTag stickers crossed the toll plazas quickly compared to vehicles which don’t have FASTag stickers.
"On average, it took 15 to 20 minutes for the non-FASTag vehicles to cross the toll plaza. So far, 70 per cent of the vehicles in the division have FASTag stickers and efforts are being made to motivate the remaining vehicles to procure FASTag," he said.
ICICI Bank has set up a counter near Keesara toll plaza for the convenience of its customers. Similarly, other nationalised banks have also set up their counters near the remaining four toll plazas in the district.
Vehicle users near Keesara fee plaza vented their ire at the officials for not rectifying technical glitches. "I don’t understand the benefit of implementing the FASTag at toll plazas on the national highways. Anyway, four lanes in the toll plaza are meant for cash transactions and one lane kept for FASTag. So what is the benefit as claimed by the officials," E Vittal Kumar, who was travelling to Vijayawada from Hyderabad, sought to know.
Buy FASTag stickers at toll plazas