FASTag to be available free of charge for 15 days

Aimed at increasing the digital collection of toll collection, the National Highways Authority of India on Wednesday decided to provide FASTag to vehicle users at free of cost till February 29.

"In order to further increase digital collection of user fee via FASTag at NH fee plazas, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to waive off the FASTag cost of Rs 100 for NHAI FASTag between February 15 and 29, 2020," the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

Road users can visit any authorised point-of-sale location with a valid registration certificate (RC) of the vehicle and get an NHAI FASTag free of cost, it said.

NHAI FASTags can be purchased from all national highway fee plazas, regional transport offices, common service centres, transport hubs, and petrol pumps, among others, it added.

However, there is no change in the applicable security deposit and minimum balance amount for the FASTag wallet.

The government has rolled out the FASTag-based toll collection system across more than 527 national highways in the country. After the introduction of FASTag, the toll collection revenue per day has jumped to Rs 87 crore from Rs 68 crores. The NHAI aimed to collect Rs 100 crore toll income per day soon once all toll plazas introduced electronic toll collection.