No FASTag on windshield? Prepare to pay double the toll on national highways.

To encourage national highway users to use FASTag, its electronic toll collection system, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has asked toll booth operators to collect double the toll from users who don’t have it or haven’t attached the sticker to their vehicle’s windshield. Such vehicles could also be blacklisted, it said.

Vehicles without a FASTag sticker cause unnecessary delays at toll plazas and charging double the fee will help to make toll operations more efficient, the ministry of road transport and highways said while justifying the decision.

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) to this effect have been issued to all toll collection agencies and concessionaires, it added. This information must be displayed prominently at toll plazas. In addition, CCTVs at toll booths will record the registration numbers of vehicles that don’t have a FASTag sticker, the ministry said. Banks that issue FASTags have been asked to ensure that the sticker is applied to the windshield at the point of sale.

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NHAI collects toll on national highways under the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. Currently, 1,000 or so plazas collect toll for about 45,000 km of national highways and expressways across India. With more than eight crore users and a penetration rate of around 98%, FASTag has revolutionised toll collection in India.

GPS-based toll collection in the works

In January, Mint reported that the union government would soon begin testing GPS-based toll collections on five to 10 highways. GPS tolling, which is faster and more efficient, is expected to ultimately replace the existing FASTag-based tolling system.

The new system will be piloted on limited highway stretches before it is rolled out nationwide, roads ministry secretary Anurag Jain said.

“Highway developer National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is working on satellite- or GPS-based tolling that would introduce a more equitable way of collecting tolls on highways. There are a few concerns on the new system that would be addressed and the learnings from initial projects would make way for devising a foolproof system of tolling that would later be available on more and more highway stretches,” Jain said.

Under the new system, toll will be collected on the go, ending the need for dedicated toll plazas. This will require geofencing of highways using global positioning system (GPS) or radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies to create a virtual geographic boundary, which would enable the software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves the fenced-off area.

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So, under GPS-based tolling, vehicles will need to be fitted with a device that can track their movement, and toll will be charged based on the distance travelled at the exit point of a highway. This will allow commuters to pay a lower toll if the distance travelled is less, unlike the present system where tolls have to be paid for a fixed distance at toll plazas even if the vehicle has to exit after a shorter distance.

The new system is based on sensors, so commuters will not have to stop at toll plazas to pay toll. Under the system, highway users will have to get themselves and their vehicles registered, and link bank accounts to transfer toll payments.