All toll plazas on national highways will have electronic toll collection facility with at least one lane dedicated to vehicles with electronic tag device, known as FASTags, beginning September 1.

FASTags is a device that can be installed on the windshield of any vehicle, and toll payments can be made directly from the pre-paid account linked to it. Hence such vehicles do not have to stop at toll plazas for payment of fees.

“The dedicated FASTag lanes will become operational at all 371 national highway toll plazas from September 1,” National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Chairman Deepak Kumar said here on Thursday, “One lane in every toll plaza will be a dedicated FASTag lane where no other form of payment will be accepted.”

Tag sale from today

From Friday, FASTags can be purchased online from the websites of banks, the National Highways Authority of India and Indian Highways Management Company Limited and it will be delivered at the customer’s doorsteps, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. FASTags are valid for five years and can be recharged online through debit or credit card and internet banking.

Mr. Kumar said the cumbersome process of purchase and recharge of FASTags had been one of the major challenges with the NHAI’s electronic toll collection project rolled out in April 2016. Till July end, 360 national highway toll plazas across the country were enabled with a single e-toll lane and more than 6 lakh RFID tags issued so far.

The NHAI also launched two mobile applications — MyFASTag and FASTag Partner — to facilitate easy purchase and recharge of FASTags. Apart from the online sale of FASTags, these can also be bought from sales points of Common Services Centres (CSC) to be set up near the toll plazas.

The government said the installation and integration of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags at all toll plaza lanes was under progress and was likely be completed by October 31.