Be ready for double Toll with INVALID FASTag
Another booster with a tinge of hope,
is the recent decision of MORTH of Double Toll for vehicles entering FASTag
enabled lanes with invalid FASTags
Vehicles that enter the dedicated FASTag
lanes on the national highways with non-activated FASTags or without enough
money in the FASTag wallet will have to pay double the toll amount.
This decision was conveyed to the public at
large via Road Transport and Highways Ministry Amendment to the National
Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008 on Friday i.e
15th May 2020.
Prior to this, the vehicle user was required to pay twice the payable fee at
the toll plaza if the vehicle didn't have the FASTag and entered the dedicated FASTag
lane.
This is according to a decision of the Road
Transport and Highways Ministry and will encourage people to top up their
FASTags and prevent users without money in their FASTag wallet from driving
into the dedicated lanes and insist on using the lanes meant for hassle-free
passage.
Users without enough money in the wallet
clog the highways and refuse to pay penalty since they already have FASTags,
explained an official.
The Ministry’s move will bring further
clarity in the rules on who can use the dedicated lanes, the official added.
QUOTE
“We still see vehicles crossing toll plazas
with non-functional FASTag, or with not enough money in the wallet. This leads
to human to human interaction and exchange of currency. This decision will
encourage more people to use functional FASTags with enough money topped up in
the account so that toll amount can be paid,” Ravi Chandra Palekar, first CEO
of Indian Highways Management Company Ltd (IHMCL) and who is now with Paytm
Payments Bank, told BusinessLine.
On the other hand, the user is not always
responsible for use of currency or human-to-human contact or clogging of
highways. “At times, if the toll plaza equipment and systems are not
functioning properly, use of handheld devices are required,” said Palekar, who
initiated rollout of the electronic toll collection program at the National
Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
UNQUOTE
Notification Extract:
G.S.R.
298.—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 9 of the National Highways
Act, 1956
(48
of 1956), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules further to
amend the National Highways
Fee
(Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008, namely: -
1.
Short title and commencement. - (1) These rules may be called the National
Highways Fee
(Determination
of Rates and Collection), Amendment Rules, 2020.
(2)
They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official
Gazette.
2.
In the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules,
2008, in rule 6, in subrule (3) the second proviso the following proviso shall
be substituted, namely:-
“Provided
further that user of the vehicle not fitted with “FASTag” or vehicle without
valid, functional
“FASTag”
entering into “FASTag lane” of the Fee plazas shall pay a fee equivalent to two
times of the fee
applicable to that category of vehicles as per sub-rule (2) of rule 4”.
_____
Q:
What is Invalid FASTag?
Ans:
Invalid FASTag is a FASTag which is ‘not active’, or does not have sufficient
balance in the underlying ‘bank account or wallet’, for the respective toll
gate to open automatically.
Q: How
to determine the fault is with the traveler’s FASTag and not with NETC
infrastructure?
Ans:
Based on the feedback in the next couple of months, FAQs on these lines maybe
released. However, we have to wait and watch.
Call
up NHAI Helpline Number @ 1033
Drop
a mail to etc.nodal@ihmcl.org and wait
for the response
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