FASTag is an automatic toll plaza payment system that hasbecome mandatory from today midnight. According to a report published in NDTV,if a person has not installed FASTag, they will have to shell out twice the feefor the category of the vehicle.
According to the government, all lanes on NationalHighways will be able to read the tags for smooth commuting by people.
Press Information Bureau in a statement said, "Ministryof Road Transport and Highways has decided that all lanes in the fee plazas onNational Highways shall be declared as FASTag lane of the fee plaza w.e.fmidnight of 15th/16th February 2021.Therefore, as per NH Fee Rules 2008, anyvehicle not fitted with FASTag or vehicle without valid, functional FASTagentering into the FASTag lane of the fee plaza shall pay a fee equivalent totwo times of the fee applicable to that category."
The complete transition to FASTag will promote digitalpayment of fees. It will reduce the time of waiting and thus, fuel consumptionby vehicles will be reduced. It will also allow seamless and smooth passagethrough toll plaza.
The FASTag is mandatory for M and N category of vehicleswhere M includes four wheels vehicles carrying passengers and N includes fourwheels vehicles used for carrying load as well as passengers.
Nitin Gadkari, the union transport minister said thedeadline won't be extended. It was introduced in 2016 and now people will haveto use it for the facilitation of e-payment. According to PTI, only 10% peopleare left who have not registered for FASTag yet.