With an aim to reduce congestion at the toll plazas and eliminate the hassles associated with toll collection, the Indian Government has introduced FASTag toll payment system. FASTag is developed to facilitate electronic toll collection by using the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. FASTag comes in the form of stickers that are pasted on the windscreen of a vehicle. This sticker is linked to your bank account or digital wallet, and the toll charges are directly deducted from the linked account whenever your car passes through the toll plaza.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway made it mandatory for all vehicles to have a FASTag from 16th February 2021, without which, vehicle owners will be required to pay double the toll amount.
FASTag makes travel hassle-free and saves time as you don’t need to stop at the toll plaza to make the toll payment. Instead, you can just keep driving and the fee will be deducted automatically from your FASTag-linked account. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how the FASTag works:
How does FASTag work?
Step 1: There is an RFID tag reader installed at the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) lane of the toll plaza. As the vehicle passes through the ETC lane, the tag reader captures the FASTag details such as the FASTag ID, vehicle class, etc., and sends it for processing to the issuing agency. The issuing agency is basically the toll plaza’s banking partner that will process the payment request.
Step 2: The bank will then send a request to the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) Mapper to verify the tag details.
Step 3: Once the FASTag ID is validated, the NETC Mapper will respond with details like tag status, vehicle class, registration details, etc. If the FASTag is not registered in the NETC Mapper, it will respond as the Tag ID is not registered.
Step 4: For valid FASTag IDs, the banking partner will calculate the necessary toll fare and initiate a payment request to NETC system.
Step 5: NETC System will then initiate a debit request to the respective issuer bank.
Step 6: Upon successful payment, the customer will receive a confirmation for the toll payment through SMS.
With FASTag, you can easily keep a track of your toll expenses. Moreover, FASTag for car also benefits the environment as it reduces the air-pollution resulting from congestion at the toll plazas. In case you have linked your FASTag with your savings bank account, there is no need to recharge it. All you have to do is to make sure that your linked bank account possesses sufficient balance for the toll payments. On the other hand, if you have linked your FASTag with any prepaid digital wallet, make sure to recharge it when your balance exhausts. You can recharge your digital wallet with UPI, debit card, credit card, NEFT, Net Banking, etc.
Now that you are well aware of what FASTag is and how it works, ensure to make the most of it by getting a FASTag affixed to your vehicle, today. It will not only save time and fuel, but also save you from paying double the toll amount at the toll plaza.
