Toll collection through FASTag has surpassed payments made through cash across the national highway network. But what has surprised NHAI is that many toll booths are reporting increased collections and officials suspect that there was lot of under-reporting of collection,.
While average daily toll collection through FASTag increased by nearly 66% in a month, from Rs 26.4 crore in the third week of November (17-23) to Rs 44 crore in the third week of December (15-21), daily cash collection dipped by 30% during this period—from Rs 51crore to Rs 35.5 crore.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari, India’s toll revenue is likely to swell to Rs 1 lakh crore annually in the next five years on the back of initiatives like electronic toll collection program, which is being implemented pan-India to remove bottlenecks. Of the total 1.4 lakh km highways under NHAI, 24,996 km of highways currently are under the toll ambit and the length will swell to 27,000 km by the year-end.
As more vehicles install FASTags, highway ministry officials are hopeful the collection will go up further. Close to 1.04 crore tags have been sold till now with an average one lakh added daily. Official data showed there was a substantial rise in the number of vehicles paying toll through FASTag—from 19.5 lakh a day on December 16 to 24.78 lakh on Tuesday—seen as an indication that people have accepted the new mode of paying user fee.
NHs see around 60L toll transactions a day
While there are no exact figures on how many vehicles pass through toll plazas and pay the user fee, sources said there could be 60 lakh toll transactions across the NH network in a day. There are about 20 crore registered vehicles across the country and barely 6 crore could be four-wheelers and transport vehicles since nearly 70% of all vehicles are two-wheelers.
Out of this 6 crore, 1.04 crore have got smart tags. A sizeable number of vehicles operates within cities and may not require a FASTag. Once another 40-50 lakh vehicles get the tag, almost 80-90% of vehicles that come on to NHs will have this facility.
Users are reporting many glitches in acquiring FasTag, particularly to ensure that topping up the tag balance becomes easy and all new users recharge them for regular use rather than just once. But for a country where even the panipuriwala accepts digital payments, migrating to Fastag should be an easy thing to do.
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