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National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has implemented the policy of mandatory FASTags on all toll plazas across the country, from February 16.
Days after the Centre implemented mandatory FASTag for highways across India, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said it will help in saving a massive amount on fuel spent annually by consumers along with the time spent at the toll gates by waiting in long queues.
Mr.Gadkari was speaking at an event where a live monitoring system for toll plazas had been launched.
"Making FASTags mandatory for highway users for collection of electronic toll has significantly reduced delays at toll plazas. This will result in a significant saving to the tune of Rs.20,000 crore per annum on fuel cost," Gadkari said was quoted by news agency PTI.
FASTags have been made compulsory for all vehicles, for paying user fees at national highway toll plazas from February 16. Toll collection through electronic mode has witnessed manifold growth since then. As per NHAI, FASTags have helped its daily toll collection shoot up to Rs.104 crore.
NHAI said that the implementation of FASTag has witnessed the growth of 20 percent in terms of electronic toll collection transactions and 27 percent in terms of collection of user fee through FASTag
"The toll collection during this week has been more than Rs.100 crore daily. On 25.02.2021, the toll collection through FASTag reached the highest ever mark of Rs.103.94 crore with over 64.5 lakh daily transactions," NHAI had said in a statement a few days ago.
FASTag has also resulted in seamless traffic across highways, with users having lesser worries of long queues at the toll gates. The minister specifically mentioned Jaipur plaza, where the waiting time for vehicles has reportedly gone down to just 5 minutes from the earlier 30 minutes.
"There is zero waiting time at 80 percent of the total toll plazas and toll collection through electronic tolling has reached 93 percent from 80 percent during the last fortnight after the FASTag was made mandatory."
According to NHAI, the FASTag drive has witnessed nearly 20 lakh, new FASTag users, in the last two weeks of February, this has taken the total subscription to 2.8 crores.