New Delhi: The country is soon going to be free from the hassle of FASTag. With this, the toll plaza is also going to become a thing of the past. In fact, the government is working on a plan to remove the toll from the National Highway and collect the toll tax from the automatic number plate reader camera. This information has been given by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. According to a media report, tax is currently deducted at toll plazas through FASTag. But, soon automatic number plate reader cameras will do the job. The camera will read this automatic number plate and the toll tax money will be deducted from your bank account. Giving information about this, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that work on this scheme is going on as a pilot project. He said that legislative amendments will also be considered to implement the scheme.
Number plate reader cameras will be installed
Nitin Gadkari said that now preparations are being made to remove toll plazas and install number plate reader cameras, which will collect toll tax from drivers. According to the report, automatic number plate reader cameras will reduce the time taken to collect toll tax. Gadkari said, however, that the project is also facing some hurdles, which are being considered to be resolved. For example, if the number plate has anything other than a number written on it, the camera may have problems reading it.
Attempt to solve these problems
The Union Minister said that apart from this, talking about another big problem, how to punish the motorist who does not pay toll tax, because there is no way to punish the vehicle owner who skips toll tax. There is no legal provision yet. He said that this also needs to be brought under the purview of the law. Gadkari also stressed that vehicles which do not have such number plates will be given specific time to install them.
Currently 97% recovery via FASTag
After the government implemented FASTag for toll tax deduction, the time taken for deduction, along with the long queues at the toll plazas, has been relieved to a great extent. Currently, 97 per cent of the total toll tax on highways of around Rs 40,000 crore is collected through FASTags. Three percent tax is charged while cash or card. Talking about the time taken in this process, after FASTags, it takes an average of 47 seconds for a vehicle to cross the toll plaza. During earlier manual mode collection, where around 112 vehicles pass per toll in an hour, after the introduction of this facility, more than 260 vehicles pass the toll easily in an hour.
These problems with FASTag
While there have been some benefits since the implementation of the FASTag system of toll collection in the country, some major problems have also surfaced. For example, some vehicles have FASTag installed, but there is a delay due to low account balance. Apart from this, sometimes some toll plazas also face internet connectivity issues due to which it takes a lot of time. Considering all these problems, the government has prepared a new plan. This system can be implemented in the country soon after solving the problems encountered in it.