Cash users at Kherki toll plaza dip by a mere 2%

Only 2 more days to go for FASTag deadline

December 13, 2019 01:53 am | Updated 01:53 am IST - GURUGRAM

Though only two days are to go for the extended December 15 deadline for FASTags at the National Highways Authority of India toll plazas, the number of cash users at Kherki Daula toll plaza — one of the busiest and the most sensitive plazas — here has gone down by only 2 %. The cash transactions have reduced only from 70% to 68 % — which is still more than two-thirds of the total traffic volume.

Assistant Manager, Toll Operations, Millennium City Expressway Private Limited, Mohammad Sohrab Khan told The Hindu that implementing the FASTag decision would be “very difficult” in the current situation with the “traffic congestion” and the “users behaviour” being the two major challenges.

He said that as part of the preparations to gear up for the D-day, trials are being conducted from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day dedicating a few of the lanes to FASTag users.

“Marshals are deployed to filter the traffic according to the payment modes and allow only FASTag users in the dedicated lanes. But the results have not been encouraging. Every time the traffic piles up, the boom are lifted to clear the mess. Around 50-60 marshals would be deployed from December 15 onwards,” said Mr. Khan.

He, however, added that restricting two-thirds of the traffic to only three lanes on each side would lead to long queues even blocking the U-turn on both sides of the toll. Though the NHAI has, in its order, made it mandatory to convert all lanes into dedicated FASTag lanes, except one on each side, the toll authorities at Kherki Daula have decided to keep three lanes for cash in view of the traffic volume.

However, those availing the PassTag, a local discounted tag for Kherki Daula, have switched over to FASTag in large numbers. While the number of FASTag and PassTag users was recorded as 14,141 and 9,389 respectively on November 1, the FASTag users increased to 21,549 and the PassTag users decreased to 4,917 on December 10.

Mr. Khan blamed the slow rate of conversion from cash to FASTag on the non-availability of the tags. He said the motorists, especially those owing personal vehicles, turn up in large number at the point-of-sale at Kherki Daula office every day, but the tags are not available. “For the last two days, the ICICI and the Airtel have run out of the tags. Similarly, Indian Highways Management Company Limited has supplied very few tags because of short supply and frequent issues with the server,” said Mr. Khan. He also expressed concern over the quality of the FASTags supplied by some of the banks saying that they were not readable.

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