[ghodlur]

Coming April 2021, Fastag will be mandatory for buying the new 3rd party insurance for the 4 wheeler. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which has taken a number of steps to aggressively promote FASTag, is reportedly planning to make the electronic toll collection device mandatory for availing third-party vehicle insurance. The proposal includes making it mandatory for getting new third party vehicle insurance through an amendment in the certificate of insurance which will also mention the FASTag ID.

This is not applicable for 2 and 3 wheeler vehicles.

All vehicles with four or more wheels would need to have FASTag from January 1, 2021 and violation would attract a penalty of Rs 300-500.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/77922019.cms

https://www.timesnownews.com/busines...surance/647284

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...w/77913118.cms

[ruzbehxyz]

The Fastag is definitely a welcome move by the Indian Government. Last time they set many dead lines for purchase of Fastag, however I still see the cash que very long at many toll plazas.
Relating the Fastag with Insuance, the Government is clearly giving an indication that all 4 wheelers be it private, commercial and Government must have Fastag. This is again welcome.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Good.

Consider this scenario. A vehicle is lying parked. The officer in uniform walks near it. In his pocket is a scanning device which searches the parivahan database for data fed in by insurance companies. Tge vehicle has no valid policy. A tow van is automatically messaged the location of the delinquent vehicle. And the vehicle is seized. No FASTag detected? Same happens.

This is long overdue.

Extend this to 2 wheelers and all of a sudden, the roads will be less crowded.

[RedTerrano]

I am glad to see the Govt moving in the right direction. As of now the FASTags are non transferable. Since they are now being linked to the vehicle insurance as well, if possible, it would be nice to take it one step further and make the tags transferable during sale of the vehicle.

In the meanwhile I suppose we can expect the usual hullabaloo from the usual suspects. Examples I can immediately think of:

1. I dont us the highways, why should I pay for FASTag
2. Does this mean Govt will start charging tolls for the city roads?
3. ₹500 per FASTag x crores of vehicles. Govt is robbing us.

[sahil1010]

This is a good move but there are some basic concerns which fastag implementation needs to take care of.

1. Vehicles entering Fastag lanes with insufficient balance or no fast tag. This always leads to an argument between owner and toll operator about paying double as a fine and complaint user has to wait almost the same time as without using a fastag.
2. Fastag is not accepted at all toll plazas. Not even on some expressways e.g. KMP.
3. At most toll plazas, the vehicle has to be brought down to almost a standstill so the Fastag reader is able to scan.

[Hayek]

Seems like an incredibly nutty policy. Why should someone who never takes a car on toll highways waste money and time getting a Fastag installed. Cars have a registration plate - that is more than enough for the car to be traced and for insurance to be issued. Classic example of our government servants taking good ideas too far and finding new ways to harass people.

[harry10]

I usually don't agree with government policies. But, this is a welcome move. Fastag makes life so easy at the toll booth. However, there are still a lot of people who enter the tag lane and pay cash thus causing a delay to the the fastag people. This well eradicate that problem.

[srishiva]

If they really want to make it easy, they can as well scan the license number and get money through postpaid ! Dont let them renew their insurance if its not fully paid up by next year.

Having barriers etc on highways for paying money is a wasteful exercise. Make changes on the backend and stop bothering people

[Turbohead]

However good Fastag really is, this is NOT a good move!

I believe many people, especially in rural areas, really don't need to use highways because they don't have any need.

Now if it becomes compulsory for everyone to have Fastag, the only beneficiaries are banks because they get paid for creating a Fastag account and can claim interest in the balance of cars which will never see a toll booth.

Ideally, a non Fastag user should be charged double or triple at the toll booth. If a person has to use a highway, let him get a Fastag for himself. Simple. Only condition being sufficient time, say 6 months notice, is given.

[cs_rajesh]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Good.

Consider this scenario. A vehicle is lying parked. The officer in uniform walks near it. In his pocket is a scanning device which searches the parivahan database for data fed in by insurance companies. Tge vehicle has no valid policy. A tow van is automatically messaged the location of the delinquent vehicle. And the vehicle is seized. No FASTag detected? Same happens.

This is long overdue.

Extend this to 2 wheelers and all of a sudden, the roads will be less crowded.

I do not find the idea of pushing installation and use of Fastag by threatening not to allow insurance renewals. Government has made mandatory insurance purchase (min third party insurance), which by itself, to me, appears a forced purchase. Forcing vehicle owners to mandatorily purchase Fastag does not appear to be in the right spirits in a democratic country.

If at all a vehicle identification needs to be checked or whether valid insurance is present, needs to be checked, then why not make the registration of the vehicle an RFID based identification plate? Fastag should not be the means of detecting valid insurance policy in force.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Seems like an incredibly nutty policy.

Every FASTag account requires a deposit of Rs 200. If all vehicles in India pay Rs 200 + GST, it will a huge corpus fund from deposits & a good amount of tax. Any money is welcome during current times.

Why should someone who never takes a car on toll highways waste money and time getting a Fastag installed. Cars have a registration plate - that is more than enough for the car to be traced and for insurance to be issued. Classic example of our government servants taking good ideas too far and finding new ways to harass people.

[Night Raven]

I don't understand the need to make fastag compulsory for everyone. As far as I can see, this is only a convenience feature. When the user feels the need to have one, let him invest in one. Provide incentives to make it attractive, but penalising people who doesn't have/need it is not right in my opinion.

For many people in rural India, a fastag is practically useless. In my case, even though I drive about 40kms everyday, the nearest toll plaza where I can use my fastag is about 90kms away. The fastag in my wife's car has never been used in the 9 months of it's life. We have a 9 year old Nano in our household which is strictly used for grocery shopping by my father and will probably never see a highway the rest of it's life. I can only imagine my father's frustration when someone tells him he cannot renew the insurance unless he gets a fastag

Originally Posted by msdivy

Every FASTag account requires a deposit of Rs 200. If all vehicles in India pay Rs 200 + GST, it will a huge corpus fund from deposits & a good amount of tax. Any money is welcome during current times.

Exactly what I thought

[avira_tk]

You need to get 2 fastags today with a new vehicle, one the dealer provides which costs 500-1000, that'll be hard to set up. You get your own later , which you can use regularly, mostly from your bank.

The privilege of fastag is waiting longer for an automated process, it's probably the best advertisement for our administrative incompetence.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by Hayek

Seems like an incredibly nutty policy.

Classic example of our government servants taking good ideas too far and finding new ways to harass people.

Thank god for your post. I was gobsmacked at some of the initial views until I read your post and some later posts as well. I simply cannot see the sense of linking a toll collection mechanism with 3rd party insurance which is mandatory.

If I want to use a small car for local grocery shopping and never take it on a highway why should I put Fastag? (Similar observations in some later posts).

Absolutely nutters and high handed move in my opinion too.

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Good.

Consider this scenario. A vehicle is lying parked. The officer in uniform walks near it. In his pocket is a scanning device which searches the parivahan database for data fed in by insurance companies. Tge vehicle has no valid policy. A tow van is automatically messaged the location of the delinquent vehicle. And the vehicle is seized. No FASTag detected? Same happens.

This is long overdue.

Extend this to 2 wheelers and all of a sudden, the roads will be less crowded.

So you want a vehicle towed because it has no Fastag?? Wow!! You do realise a much simpler way to enforce this would be to stop all cash based access at toll plazas. Without the need to tow a vehicle being used within the city just because it does not have a fastag for highway toll. This way you might prevent someone from renewing their insurance policy just because they don't have a fastag.

Secondly, you want to extend this to two wheelers. Are you aware that two wheelers don't pay toll. Therefore the fastag is not applicable to them.

Finally, you want measures like Fastag to be deployed so that people who buy vehicles should not be able to take them on the roads, making the roads less crowded for Fastag users.

[ABHI_1512]

Just the other day, I was wondering if we are on our way to being a fully surveillance state in some other thread. Fastag as an idea is wonderful but only if would have remained for the purpose it was initially launched. To ease the travel on the highways, to save fuel costs and waiting time and most importantly the commercial vehicles would the ones to reap maximum benefits which in turn would result in greater economic activities.

But then came the wonderful ideas, firstly every new car came mandatorily with fastags and now this proposal to link insurance which just defies any logical thinking. Someone who has not taken the car to the highways ever will now have to take one for the sake of insurance. I will not comment on some replies here which are quite frankly baffling to me since my limited brain is unable to process them.

Only a certain percentage of people take their cars to the highways. Tier 2 or Tier 3 towns have folks who hardly ever use the highways. Now to tell them to get their accounts linked first with fastag and then giving them the chance of renewing their insurance is such a harassment. Actually, we people who live in the cities won’t ever understand the tragedy of a certain section of people. Writing more will earn me an infraction and I don’t want that !