Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (MS)

New Delhi, Feb 5: Waiting time of vehicles has shot up by 29% at the toll gates after the introduction of FASTag according to the central toll plaza traffic monitoring system. This delay is with only 60% FASTag vehicle out of the total toll collection.

This is contradictory to the very reason the FASTag was introduced. Giving the details and accepting the delay Nitin Gadkari, union minister for road, transport and highways, to a query from Sanjay Raut, MP of Shiv Sena in Rajya Sabha, said, "The delay time for vehicles to pass through toll plazas across the country has increased considerably in lanes where both cash and FASTag are accepted. However, the vehicles which have FASTag are moving considerable faster than earlier.

"Government is adding one lac FASTag everyday to the system. This is in addition to Rs 1.4 crore FASTag that are already in operation in the country," said Nitin Gadkari.

In the FASTag system, a Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) sticker is fixed to the windshield of the car which has a barcode with details of the vehicle registration number. As the car with RFID sticker approaches any toll plaza in India it reads the RFID code and the necessary toll fee is deducted from the prepaid balance. This makes the vehicles to move faster through the toll gate.

The average waiting time at toll plazas, according to a report of central toll plaza traffic monitoring system which has the data of 488 toll gates across the country, was seven minutes and 44 seconds during the time period of November 15, 2019 to December 14, 2019.

The FASTag system was introduced across the country in December 2019, though the announcement with regards to this was made in October 2019 by Nitin Gadkari. However, due to teething problems the actual implementation went up to January 15, 2020. According to the Central Toll Plaza Monitoring System almost six million vehicles make use of the toll booths everyday across the country.