New Delhi: Since FASTag, the automatic toll plaza payment system, is being made mandatory for all vehicles across the country from Tuesday, commuters on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway (NH-48) are likel
New Delhi: Since FASTag, the automatic toll plaza payment system, is being made mandatory for all vehicles across the country from Tuesday, commuters on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway (NH-48) are likely to frequent traffic jams at the Kherki Daula toll plaza for the next few days. Notably, the move to implement digital modes of payments is expected to affect traffic movement on the national highway.
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Speaking to a news agency, officials of the Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL), the concessionaire, said that jams may be caused as 20 per cent of the vehicles do not have FASTags. They are operated through RFID technology to collect toll fees. The stickers are fixed on windshields and these are detected at the toll plaza by the readers.
“We have deployed extra traffic marshals on all 25 lanes to tackle the vehicles passing through the toll plaza. Traffic police have been informed so that no confusion can occur during the morning hours on Tuesday”, said an official, adding that the problem will come to the fore when the blacklisted vehicles that don’t have functional tags or commuters without FASTags would enter the lanes and disrupt the traffic movement.
Another problem is that around 65,000 toll-paying vehicles pass through the toll plaza at Kherki Daula every day which has increased significantly after the launching of the Covid-19 vaccine. The number of toll-paying vehicles, which stood at around 65,000 on an average for the last few days, has increased to 80,000, said an official of the concessionaire.
All steps have been taken to ensure smooth movement of traffic at the toll plaza. “New Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag readers have been installed recently, multiple stalls for the sale of FASTags have been set up at the toll plaza to ensure vehicle owners can buy these,” said a official, adding that people will take some time to opt digital payments at the toll plaza.
National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) officials also said that vehicles entering the lanes without valid tags would have to pay double the fees.
