The world is progressing at an exponential rate and the same can be said for India as well. To contribute to India’s economic sector, the ever growing logistics industry leaves no stone unturned.

With the logistics sector becoming more robust, India would soon become a large manufacturing giant.

However, now that the world is becoming fully digital, growth of any sector especially logistics is highly dependent on proper government measures and apt integration of modern technology.

Logistics and transportation have been the reason behind every economy’s ascent and are the holding pillars for pretty much every business structure over the world.

India is steadily heading towards a digital revolution. There has already been a spectacular jumpstart in the technology being adopted in the country for implementation of sophisticated digital payment ecosystem in the toll and travel sector.

Analysing the current and future technological scenarios, India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) decided to put forth the step to implement cutting-edge innovation in national highways for toll charge collection. This decision was considered worth plausible.

In the current scenario, tolling-related technologies have picked up incredible momentum. All this is done to enable the acceptance of digital payments against physical cash at toll squares (nakas).

With an increased focus on implementing an effective and efficient toll collection framework and electronic toll collection (ETC) throughout the country, FASTag emerged to be a pivotal solution in enabling a fast, efficient and cashless payment choice for the collection of the toll charge.

FASTag was initiated keeping in scrutiny many toll inconveniences for both individual drivers and the nation at whole.

FASTag’s impressive and organised system has compelled people to jump on its digital bandwagon in a short period of time. FASTag has helped considerably in making India cashless.

Let’s now understand what is FASTag in detail.

What is a FASTag?

A FASTag is a reloadable tag that enables automatic deduction of toll charges digitally. FASTag is attached on the windscreen of your vehicle and it utilizes RFID (radio frequency identification) technology for facilitating digital payments at the toll plazas.

Having a FASTag in your vehicle eliminates the need for you to stop at the toll plazas for any kind of cash transaction. The toll charge/tax is subtracted directly from the prepaid account linked to your FASTag.

FASTag is the best solution for a hassle-free road trip on national highways. It is currently operational at more than 180 toll plazas across state and national highways. More FASTag supporting toll plazas will be added in the future.

How does FASTag Work?

FASTag functions in a similar way to other radio frequency identification (RFID) devices. A RFID enabled tag is fixed to a vehicle’s windshield, and the reader at toll booths scan this card wirelessly and automatically processes the payment.

When your vehicle having a FASTag sticker passes through a FASTag-enabled toll plaza, you don’t need to stop your car to make cash payment for the toll charge. Instead, the fees will be paid automatically with you just keep driving your vehicle.

The FASTag card gets scanned while it’s in motion by emitting a signal to the FASTag card at the toll plaza to request the toll fee payment, and the payment immediately gets subtracted.

It is crucial that the FASTag card is linked with a bank savings account or a digital wallet to make sure that toll fee payment gets facilitated.

FASTags were declared compulsory in all new cars sold after 2017 and for all vehicles from 2021 as an approach to motivate digital payments as well as free up congestion at toll booths.

Benefits of FASTag in Transport

• As mentioned above, a FASTag helps one to drive through toll squares without having to stop his/her vehicle. FASTag eliminates the need to stop for cash transactions. By using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, FASTag facilitates toll fares payments automatically from the prepaid savings/wallet accounts linked to it.
• FASTag substantially reduces vehicular congestion on the toll barriers and assists in avoiding cash payments.
• FASTags helps in reducing fuel wastage and high levels of released pollution due to long waiting times at the toll plazas.
• According to the statistics conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and the Transport Corporation of India. Successful implementation of FASTags on all the main national highways could help save approximately Rs. 87,000 crore annually.

Additional Features of FASTag

• Emergency roadside help
• Accidental Death Cover
• SMS and Email Notification of Transactions

FASTag can also help the country’s government in determining the quantum of road use and the different kinds of vehicles passing through.

This will help determine the budget for road widening and other infrastructural expenditures. Some of the other key advantages of implementing FASTag technology are as follows:

• Elimination of need to carry cash for toll fare payments
• Validity for a period of 5 years after the first purchase.
• Debit card, credit card, IMPS/NEFT/ RTGS, and Net Banking are available for recharging FASTag online.
• Issue of payment of toll fares to the user via SMS alerts when the balance becomes low.
• To encourage the adoption of FASTag, a feature of 10% cashback is made available on every toll payment using it.

Conclusion

FASTag is the future. Register to make one for yourself in order to make transport through toll plazas seamless.

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