If you are going for a road trip after Monday midnight, you will need a FASTag for your vehicle. The Union Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways has said that the Radio Frequency Identification tag, which facilitates electronic payment of fees at toll plazas, will become mandatory from Monday midnight and vehicles without FASTag will have to pay twice the toll amount.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said that the deadline for implementation of FASTag will not be extended and vehicle owners should immediately buy the e-payment facility. It has been decided that all lanes in the fee plazas on National Highways shall be declared as FASTag lane with effect from the midnight of February 15/16, a statement issued by the transport ministry has said.
The National Electronic Toll Collection FASTag, which works with electronic payment systems developed by the National Payments Corporation of India, is a sticker that can be attached to the windshield of your car. The RFID-enabled barcode linked with registration details of your vehicle allows toll amounts to be deducted digitally from your prepaid balance, thereby allowing cars to pass seamlessly without interacting with people at the toll plaza.
You can buy FASTag for your vehicle at certain toll plazas across the country by producing identification and vehicle registration documents. You can also buy it online on portals such as Paytm and Amazon.in or on the websites of certain banks such as HDFC Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, etc.
The cost of buying FASTag will depend on the type of your vehicle and the website you are getting it from. For instance, you can buy FASTag for your car from Paytm for Rs 500, out of which Rs 250 will be your refundable security deposit and Rs 150 will be your wallet balance.
You can recharge your FASTag digital wallet using internet banking, credit or debit cards and UPI. A FASTag is valid for five years from the date of purchase and the recharge amount does not have any extended validity period associated with it.
People who are exempted from paying tolls, like judges, ministers, lawmakers, top bureaucrats and military officers, and emergency service workers, do not need to get FASTag.
The central government had earlier extended the deadline for vehicles to get FASTag from January 1 to February 15.