Anticipating heavy rush of vehicles for the ensuing Sankranti festival, the National Highways Authority of India has set up special counters in close to a dozen highway restaurants on Hyderabad-Vijayawada (NH-65), Hyderabad-Bengaluru (NH-44) and Hyderabad-Warangal (NH-163) to sell FASTag for hassle-free travel.
The decision comes in wake of the rush seen at all the 17 toll plazas in Telangana consequent to the collection of user fee through FASTag mode only, from December.
With many travelling without tags waiting for considerable time at the non-FASTag lanes and expressing ire, the authorities decided that more counters would be opened to sell the tags.
Sale points
Accordingly, five restaurants on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway, four on Hyderabad-Bengaluru and two on Hyderabad-Warangal highway have been requested to allow setting up of special counters.
“These counters will sell the tags for vehicles which do not have one. The idea is to help travellers avoid hardships like waiting for a long time in cash lanes. We will continue to run the counters at all the toll plazas till we achieve the target,” said NHAI-Hyderabad Regional Officer A. Krishna Prasad.
NHAI officials expect heavy rush at Panthangi toll plaza (NH-65), Raikal plaza (NH-44) and Gudur plaza (NH-163). “As Sankranti falls in the middle of the week, our expectation is that the travellers would start heading for their hometowns from January 11 (Saturday) itself. The flow could be scattered giving us some breathing time,” Mr. Prasad said.
Hyderabad, Telangana 03/01/2020: National Highways Authority of India( NHAI ) Regional Officer A.Krishna Prasad explaining about NHAI gears up for Sankranti rush urges road users to buy FASTag for hassle-free travel on highways in Hyderabad on Friday, Open special counters on highway restaurants to sell FASTag. NHAI to strictly implement FASTag rule from January 15 with only one cash lane at each Toll Plaza.. Photo: Nagara Gopal / The Hindu
Technical staff at plazas
At a meeting with NHAI officials, bankers and vendors selling tags, it was decided that sale of tags should be stepped up. As part of the measure, banks were asked to start more counters and deploy technical staff at the toll plazas to meet any technical issues.
Asked about the technical hiccup in implementation of the National Electronic Toll Collection programme for collection of user fee through FASTag based on RFID technology, Mr Prasad said some problems did crop up which are being addressed.
He pointed out instances of travellers using tags issued for non-commercial vehicles on commercial vehicles. This was leading to the tag getting blacklisted and disrupting free flow of traffic in the dedicated lanes. “We have warned the tag owners and banks to be cautious of such attempts,” he said.
Similarly, old tags issued for heavy vehicles and RTC buses were also not getting scanned easily leading to delay. Some tags affixed in an improper manner also led to scanners not reading the tags. “We are issuing new tags with the same identification numbers without any extra charge,” the NHAI official said.
Another problem was tag-enabled vehicles entering the dedicated lanes without sufficient balance in the account.
“Such vehicles are stuck in the booths as the barrier will not open, causing inconvenience to other users,” he noted.
