From Today, Pay Double Toll If You Don’t Have FASTag; 25% Of Lanes Will Accept Cash Till Jan 15

For the second time, Govt of India has extended the deadline for compulsory FASTags across all toll plazas, and this time, the reason is shortage of FASTags.

Does this interpret to uncooked Govt policy, and bad execution of an important scheme?

What is the new deadline? Keep reading to find out more!

FASTag Deadline Extended, Again

Earlier, it was declared that December 1st is the deadline after which only FASTags will be accepted for paying toll at all toll plazas in India.

Later, it was extended to December 15th, and now, once again, the deadline has been extended.

January 15th is the new deadline for implementing FASTags across all toll plazas. 

In case any vehicle doesn’t have FASTags by then, then they will need to pay double toll charges.

India Has No FASTags!

The reason this deadline has been extended, is that India has an acute shortage of FASTags as of now. 

As per NHAI, only 18 million FASTags are available right now with various banks and toll plazas, and the number of vehicles is too much. Since the tags are actually imported, there is a waiting time of atleast 45 days to get new batch of FASTags.

In their letter to Govt seeking extension of deadline, NHAI said, “The banks and other selling platforms supplying FASTags are contingent upon the production capacity and at present approximately 18 lakh [1.8 million] tags inventory is available in the market. With lead time due to import of the chips and subsequent production of the tags, there is a supply-deficit in the market and all citizens have not been able to obtain FASTags,”

25% Of All Lanes Will Accept Cash

As per the new directive from Govt., 25% of all lanes across all toll plazas will be now hybrid, that is they will accept cash and FASTags, both.

This will be a huge relief to millions of vehicle owners, who still haven’t bought FASTags, due to various reasons.

Will There Be Penalty Between December 15th To January 15th?

As per some reports, those who are paying toll charges by cash need to pay double the regular fees, since the actual implementation has already started.

However, the only relaxation is that, the vehicle owners can still pay by cash, at 25% of the lanes across the toll plazas.

Besides, some reports also claim that toll plazas are giving free FASTags till December 15th, if they are available.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.