SBI would be able to have sold one million ‘SBI FASTag’ by end of this fiscal enabling road users to cruise through toll plazas across the country, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of State Bank of India Neeraj Vyas said. Announcing the launch of the new product for the bank’s Telangana Circle, here on Tuesday in the presence of Chief General Manager Hardyal Prasad, he said they had tied up with three agencies who had set up 30 points of sale on national highways.
Since its launch last year, the bank has issued 80,000 but the numbers would go up as the drive gathered momentum, he pointed out.
Interoperable
“The process of putting together this product started in the year 2012. SBI FASTag card works on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and is currently operational at 346 toll plazas nation-wide — operated by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The system is interoperable between those run by the NHAI and other private agencies and it is only a matter of time before it becomes seamless, all over India,” Mr. Vyas said.
He added that with the numbers of people taking vacations by road on the rise, the excitement of not having to stop at toll plazas was becoming contagious. Sale of the 10 X 5 cm multi-layered tag containing a chip and antenna was sure to pick up, he said.
Uninterrupted journey
All one had to do was to affix the card on the windshield, load money in the card from the bank account linked to it and hit the road. Mr. Hardyal Prasad explained that as of now, the bank’s Telangana Circle had issued 6,300 FASTags. They could be used across plazas under the National Electronic Toll Collection programme once more toll plazas were brought under the programme. Turning towards Mr. Vyas, he said his team of officers in Telangana Circle would strive to promote it and achieve a target of at least 50,000 in this fiscal.
