FASTag to be mandatory for all vehicles from January 1

New Delhi: All vehicles in the country will need to have FASTags January 1 onwards, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.

This comes amid the government’s efforts to facilitate seamless movement of traffic across toll plazas in the country.

The transport ministry in November this year had issued a notification mandating all four wheelers to have FASTags, January 1, 2021 onwards, failing which, the vehicle owner can be fined under the provisions of Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR), 1989.

Since 2017, FASTag had been made mandatory for all registration of new four wheeled Vehicles and is to be supplied by the vehicle manufacturer or their dealers.

It has also been mandated that a valid FASTag is mandatory while getting a new 3rd Party Insurance through an amendment in FORM 51 (certificate of Insurance), wherein the details of FASTag ID shall be captured. This shall be effective 1st April, 2021 onwards.

This would be a major step for ensuring that the payment of fees be 100% at toll plazas through the electronic means only and that the vehicles pass seamlessly through the Fee Plazas, the government said.

Currently, 75% of toll fee is collected through FASTags.

“The steps for ensuring the availability of FASTag at multiple channels are being made through physical locations and also through online mechanism so that the citizens are able to have them affixed on their vehicles within the next two months at their convenience,” a statement issued by the ministry of road transport and highways said.

Introduced in 2014, the RFID-based FASTags affixed on vehicle windscreens would enable toll to be debited from a linked account, without requiring vehicles to stop for transactions.

FASTags, however, did not pick up until a transport ministry directive in July last year called for equipping all toll lanes barring one across National highways in the country with electronic toll collection (ETC) infrastructure.

In November this year, FASTag users in the country breached two crore-mark, registering a growth of 400% in a year.