Gurugram: Tech the speedbreaker as FASTags slow traffic down

The switch from cash to FASTags, made mandatory by the Union ministry of road and transport (MoRTH) from Monday midnight, held up thousands of exasperated commuters at the Kherki Daula toll plaza for the third successive day on Thursday. Despite more than 80% vehicles now under the FASTag ambit, technical glitches and operational hazards have reduced them to a snail’s pace.

The toll concessionaire, MCEPL, pointed out two main reasons behind this. First, it said, was the ‘poor quality’ of the new tags, which the RFID readers are missing, necessitating the use of hand-held devices that slows down traffic and takes about five minutes per vehicle.

“We have raised this issue multiple times and want the NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) and the ministry to launch an audit of the new FASTags issued by the empanelled banks. We have got our RFID machines upgraded and tested for quality several times. They all are up to the mark and can easily read the smart tags that we used to issue earlier. The new tags are so weak that it takes several attempts from hand-held machines to read them. Unless this is fixed, traffic jams are inevitable,” said a toll plaza official, not wishing to be named.

Secondly, the NHAI’s decision to allow vehicles with insufficient but non-negative balance in FASTag to pass through is yet to be implemented. As a result, several cars with ‘blacklisted’ Fastags that have insufficient balance are forced to get them recharged at the toll gate itself.

“If a user has insufficient balance, the amount was to be deducted from the security deposit charged by the banks issuing the tag. But this has not been implemented yet,” said an official of the toll concessionaire.

NHAI, on its part, said these were initial hiccups and travel will be seamless once FASTag coverage is 100%. Officials said they will take note of all the concerns flagged by the toll management and commuters.

“These are initial challenges that will be ironed out soon. We are assessing the situation on a daily basis. We request people to download the MY FASTag app, which can help us reduce the congestion at the toll plaza. If their account is green, it means it’s active and they have sufficient balance. Orange means their account is active but they are running low on balance. If it’s red, the user has insufficient balance and the account will get activated after recharging,” said an NHAI official.

Commuters, meanwhile, said they preferred cash over the digital mode. “It is extremely frustrating to use this toll now. I got a FASTag installed in December 2019 itself, believing it would make access easier. But nothing of the sort has happened on the ground. In other places too, the situation seems to be the same. One of my friends in UP has complained about it too. I now feel cash payments were much simpler and hassle-free,” said Rajeev Singh, a commuter.