Bengaluru: The use of FASTag will increase exponentially on National Highways from Dec. 1 this year, as toll plaza windows in all lanes of National Highways across the country will start accepting FASTag, the RFID chips on each vehicle. The present rule mandates at least one lane accepts FASTag.

This will change starting December when toll plazas transactions may become tedious for people paying by cash. A notification said that only one lane would be allowed to accept toll in cash mode. More than half of toll plazas located across National Highways have already converted all their lanes with technology that accept toll payments electronically through FASTag, the RFID tags with unique identification numbers for each vehicle.

In Karnataka, however, toll plazas on State Highways will have electronic toll collection system from April 1, 2020. This was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Govind M. Karajol in Bengaluru yesterday. Karajol, who also holds Public Works portfolio, told reporters here that the State Government had signed an MoU with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to implement the electronic tolling system.

At present, toll plazas on all 32 State Highways have the system of manual collection of toll. These toll plazas will be converted to electronic toll plazas, where users have to pay toll charges through electronic mode using FASTag, instead of cash. The works on converting the system from manual to electronic will be completed before April 2020.

FASTag is a simple-to-use, reloadable tag which enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets vehicles pass the toll plaza, without stopping for cash transaction. Karajol said about Rs. 12 crore is required for integration of each toll plaza with FASTag and funds will be shared equally by the State and the Centre. There are 161 State Highways, covering 18,476 km, in the State, the DCM said.

The move will enable users to zoom through toll plazas on national highways by making payments electronically. Of the 527 toll plazas across National Highways, 380 got FASTag in all lanes, while more lanes are being made FASTag-enabled.

Use of FASTag will lower queuing time at toll plazas. This will also be good from a security perspective for the Home Ministry as the details of the person in the vehicle as well as who is travelling from where to where will also be available.