Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said the deadline for the implementation of FASTag would not be extended further, and the vehicle owners should immediately adopt the e-payment facility.
The Indian government has made it mandatory for all vehicles to use FASTag, an electronic toll collection, starting midnight of February 15. All lanes in the fee plazas on National Highways will be declared as “FASTag lane of the fee plaza” from the midnight of February 15, as per the guideline issued by the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways on Sunday.
As per National Highways Fee Rules 2008, a double toll charge would be collected from the vehicles entering FASTag lanes without the tag or vehicle without valid, functional FASTag. This has been done to give prime importance to existing FASTag users and dissuade defaulters as well as to further encourage national highways commuters to adopt FASTags.
The Ministry had mandated the fitment of FASTag in M and N categories of motor vehicles with effect from January 1. Category ‘M’ stands for a motor vehicle with at least four wheels used for carrying passengers. And Category ‘N’ stands for a motor vehicle with at least four wheels used for carrying goods, which may also carry persons in addition to goods.
FASTags, which facilitate electronic payment of fee at toll plazas, was introduced in 2016. The central govt. extended the FASTag deadline for the vehicles from January 1,2021 , to February 15, 2021.
