Fastag : By not jamming the toll plazas, fuel savings of Rs 20,000 crore is being achieved annually. The special thing is that after the implementation of FASTag, there has been a record increase of 148 percent in toll tax.
The Central Government’s Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system and FASTag technology have started showing pleasant results. There are many benefits from this one technique. FASTag has almost ended the problem of jam at toll tax plazas across the country. Toll is cut at the plaza in two to three minutes. Due to this the average speed of vehicles has increased by 25-30 percent.
By not jamming the toll plazas, fuel savings of Rs 20,000 crore is being achieved annually. The special thing is that after the implementation of FASTag, there has been a record increase of 148 percent in toll tax. The direct benefit of which will be given to the common road passengers.
According to the data of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, by January 2022, more than 4.59 crore vehicles have been fitted with FASTag.At present, FASTag is being installed in about two lakh vehicles every month. In 2019-20, Rs 10728.52 crore was deposited through online toll tax collection (FASTag).In 2020-21, 20,837.08 and 2021-22 (till January) a revenue of Rs 26622.93 crore was received.
Thus, in less than the last two years, there has been an increase of 148.15 percent in toll tax collection through FASTag. At present, toll collection is Rs 110 crore per day.
Dr. Summit Basin, director of the Public Policy Research Center, which does research work in the infrastructure sector, said that the cost of the National Highway project is fixed according to the evaluation in the DPR.The construction company is given the right to collect the toll rates and toll for the years according to the toll amount received daily for the return of the invested money.
Before there was no digital transaction, there was confusion in the collection of toll tax, but now the toll money goes directly to the banks. With the increase in the toll collection amount, the company’s investment will return soon. With this, the toll rates will be cheaper and the recovery period will also be shorter, which will benefit the general public.
He told that there are 728 toll plazas (201 state government plazas) in the country.In this, ETC system is working on 97 percent. According to research, fuel worth Rs 20 thousand crores is being saved every year by not jamming the plazas. Fastag is playing an important role in saving the environment.
Transport specialist S.P. Singh says that in the past it was common to get jammed for hours at toll plazas due to manual toll tax.But after the implementation of FASTag from December 2020, vehicles without stopping are paying toll.
There are some large plazas where it takes two to three minutes. Apart from this, sometimes it takes time to deduct tax due to slow bank server. With better internet network, this problem will also end and vehicles will be able to pay toll without stopping.
