Monday, December 16, 2019

Not all vehicles have Fastag facility

16/12/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Even as the Centre has postponed its decision to make Fastag facility mandatory at toll plazas of National Highways Authority of India, a majority of vehicles passing through Nanguneri toll plaza in the district lack the service.

However, the number of motorists purchasing Fastag increased from 80 to 100 during the last week at the toll plaza, an employee in the Chennai-Nagercoil section said.

The Ministry of Road Transport Highways has extended the deadline to equip all lanes at toll plazas with Fastag payment mode to January 14.

“We have kept one hybrid lane each on both directions and the remaining four each are for Fastag-enable vehicles only,” another employee said.

Whenever the number of vehicles on hybrid lanes go beyond 15, another lane is opened to allow drivers to pay cash. “This is to avoid overcrowding at the toll plaza. Sometimes, the piling up of vehicles leads to unnecessary confrontations,” he added.

Some of the vehicle users attempt to forcibly enter the Fastag lanes without having the facility even after employees waiting at the entrance guide them to the right lanes.

“We are yet to start imposing double fees on users as many of them are yet to understand the rules,” he said.

Meanwhile, some vehicle users complain that the Fastag facility is black-listed for “unknown reasons”.

According to a driver proceeding to Chennai, employees at Chittampatti toll plaza told him that his account was blacklisted despite having recharged his account for ₹1,200 on Saturday evening.

“I dont know why it has been blacklisted. Even those at the plazas are not able to explain it to me,” he said after paying cash.

A similar complaint was made by C. Joshua, who runs a dairy in Madurai.

“A few of my vehicles have Fastag facility under a closed user group account. But often my truck drivers complain that the facility has been blacklisted at some of the toll gates on the way to Chennai, especially at the one in Vikkiravandi,” he said.

While stating that CUG facility of Fastag helps him to keep a tab on his trucks and the toll expenditure, Mr. Joshua says he does not get a satisfactory response from the toll plaza staff or from the bank or from the customer care helpline of Fastag.

“Those at customer care speak only Hindi and often do not respond properly. Even when I pay through my nose to change the tag with a newer one, by paying ₹250 each time, the balance money in the particular tag is not reverted to the main account for days together. I do not know what to do?” he said.

A toll plaza employee says it can be due to various reasons including lack of network connectivity.

At Chittampatti, at least five to seven vehicles are seen queing up at each of the two hybrid lanes on Sunday, as there is no facility here for digital payment.

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