With conclusion of the auspicious days in Margashira month, ahead of Sankranti, and people rushing for last-hour marriages and functions, highway traffic saw a spike on NH-65 (Hyderabad-Vijayawada) on Friday and Saturday.
According to estimates by toll plaza managers, the vehicle numbers crossed the daily average. On Saturday, it was estimated that by 11 p.m., the clocked figure would be 35,000 vehicles at the Pantangi toll plaza at Choutuppal. Officials also suggest that about 80% of the traffic passing through this toll plaza, the second busiest in the State after Raikal plaza in Mahabubnagar district, has got used to FASTag or electronic toll collection.
The radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags take some two seconds to be read, while a cash transaction for each vehicle would take at least 10 seconds. And hence, the operators say, the maximum queue does not exceed 200 metres, the ‘cash only’ lane included, compared to the kilometres-long queue two years ago.
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Real test
However, the test of time and traffic on this highway will be in a couple of days, as natives of Andhra Pradesh would be heading back for the harvest festival, when the traffic volume doubles. And, the actual number of vehicles that have been FASTag-stickered would be known.
But whether the vehicle is FASTag-stickered or not, the difference between FASTag lane and ‘Cash only’ lane would be erased and all lanes will be converted to ‘cash also’, slightly increasing the delay in all the six lanes towards Vijayawada. Maximum vehicles at Pantangi, as recorded by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), on January 11 last year, a Saturday, was 50, 275, of which 50.42% or 25, 349 were FASTag collections.
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Officials say the percentage would rise, as vehicles owners have been aware of two compulsory FASTag implementation dates in the past – December 1 last year and January 1 this year – and the FASTag sales considerably rose. Toll plaza managers are however preparing for the once-a-year traffic by bringing more hand-held readers, roping in more staff, and particularly, converting all lanes to cash also, if need arises.
About 65,000 vehicles would pass through Pantangi toll plaza on Monday and Tuesday for Sankranti, and a repeat on the return, over the weekend after the festival.