FASTag: All you need to know about procuring & using it!

[ravib]

Originally Posted by binand

Drove to Chennai this morning. I think about an hour was saved with Fastag - 10 mins per toll booth, let us say. Since this was my first drive had a couple of issues too. At Pallikonda, ended up in a non-Fastag lane and the clerk refused to use the handheld scanner. So I flashed a Rs. 2000 note, and after much cajoling me to cough up change (I said I don't have even Rs. 5 for the Rs. 55 toll) they somehow produced a scanner.

At most booths they block the Fastag lane with plastic barriers, and will open it up only after seeing your tag. But the problem is that the driver has to quickly determine - especially at crowded booths - which is the ETC lane, and if you miss, then you are stuck.

But TNSTC/SETC drivers bully the booth operators to pass through the dedicated lane. :-)

Never have I driven door-to-door in 5 hours (360 km) - 7:15 AM from Bellandur Shell to 12:15 PM at Besant Nagar beach. The power of Fastag is quite understated.

Originally Posted by procrj

Second that. Drove to Pondy & back over the long weekend and both ways, Fastag helped. Was able to cut through the Queue of cars at the tolls and save time.

As a first FASTag customer in bangalore, i have been reaping the benefit of FASTag since Sep 2015 . However, at that time, FASTag was not popular and many people didn't even knew what it was. The project was in pilot phase till Apr 2016 and then picked up momentum and also started to get 10% discount much before demonitization.

I mentioned exactly the same words what @binand mentioned in old FASTag thread which is closed now. It easily saves at least 1 hour overall.

-Ravi

[Prodigy07]

Originally Posted by arvind71181

I got my RFID from the NHAI office located near the Olympia tech park.

Thanks Arvind. Spoke to Prabhu just now. Looks like the tags are currently unavailable.

He says he might get them in the next 2-3 days.

[unk9ja]

The Fastag lane seems to be defunct over the holiday weekend. Been to Mangalore and back and on my return on all the 4 tolls from Hassan, I was diverted to the Fastag lane even though I did not have it. But the service was very quick at these tolls with no more than 5-7 minutes taken at each toll even though it was busy.

[NPV]

Fastag experience last weekend:
Onward (Saturday): Drove Bangalore-Coimbatore-Palakkad-Alathur, then took State highway route via Chelakara, Wadakkancheri to Thrissur.
Sparse traffic all the way. FasTag worked at all tolls (except L&T Coimbatore bypass where it is not implemented) and dedicated lanes were manned by security guys.

Return: Drove Thrissur-Mannuthy-Palakkad-Coimbatore-Sankari, then took state highway route via Konganapuram-Tharamangalam-Omalur and joined the NH 7 again to Bangalore
FasTag worked at all tolls (except L&T Coimbatore bypass).
However, the traffic was very heavy from Vijayamangalam (Kumarapalayam) onwards.
From here, the FasTag lanes left a lot to be desired.

At Kumarapalayam, Traffic was just beginning to pile up at the toll plaza and the FasTag lane was blocked as they had some system problem and the security guy asked us to take left most lane without paying cash.

After seeing the crazy traffic, I took the Tharamangalam-Omalur route and this way avoided the tolls at Vaigundam and Omalur.

At Thoppur it was crazy with a 1.5Km long line and took about 20 minutes to reach the FasTag lane, it was open to all vehicles.
It became difficult to access the dedicated lane that wasn't dedicated any more as they allowed all traffic in.
Some vehicles who had the 2 way/multiple journey toll receipts were let in through the toll plaza office complex that also had a kind of exclusive road with boom barrier. These guys then could exit just beyond the toll plaza, no such luck with FasTag though.
The security guy used a handheld scanner to scan the tag and then we had to follow other vehicles in the FasTag lane and just had to let the guy at the booth know that it had been scanned manually!

Even more horrible situation at Krishnagiri but spotted the jam in time to take the service road below and exit via FasTag lane in about 20 minutes.

At Attibele, the dedicated FasTag lane wasn't allowing other vehicles but to reach that lane it took about 15 minutes or so.

Since it was past 9pm, BETL and Hosur road were relatively free and reached home around 10:15pm.

At BETL, one FasTag lane was closed and other one operational, but there was a trucker who was arguing with the toll attendants causing a 4-5 minute delay for us.

[ravib]

@NPV, i crossed Thoppur Toll plaza around 2 pm, Krishnagiri around 3 pm and Attilbelle around 3.45 pm and FASTag was working as dedicated lane. No other traffic was allowed.

Seems they change the decision to allow all vehicles depending on traffic dynamically in long weekends and defeat the purpose.

-Ravi

[ragh_bhushan]

Guys, I have been informed by the person who sold Fastag to me at Talegaon toll plaza that in case the tag reader fails to read your tag or if there is no hand-held scanner, then you can tell the toll operator your tag serial number and the appropriate amount will be deducted from your account. I have tried this on Mumbai-Pune Expressway and it worked for me.

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by ragh_bhushan

then you can tell the toll operator your tag serial number and the appropriate amount will be deducted from your account.

I guess the tag invalid issue in Pune - Mumbai expressway happens when you enter non ETC toll lanes. In Pune - Mumbai expressway, all toll lanes have tag sensors installed. However, for Fastag I guess only dedicated ETC lanes work.

Remember someone mentioning the same earlier, also I faced the same issue when I entered non ETC lane with Fastag couple of weeks back.

I am hearing the option of letting know the tag serial number for the first time, have had an case where the toll operator noted down by registration number in non toll lane and said it will be debited later. Some 2.5 weeks and it is yet to happen though.

[procrj]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

I am hearing the option of letting know the tag serial number for the first time

I have given my tag number a couple of times at Devanahalli toll. Been more than 2 months and still no debit for the same.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by ravib

Seems they change the decision to allow all vehicles depending on traffic dynamically in long weekends and defeat the purpose.

That is because in many places the security guards are bullied by the vehicle users. During the Deepavali (2016) long week end, I faced the same situation at Athibelle toll booth. But what the guards did was to route all Ka.SRTC and TN.STC buses on this line (which made many other drivers believe that this was a track dedicated for the buses !!). But in the next toll; Krishnagiri toll the dedicated lane worked. So looks like all this depends upon the skill of the "law enforcement agency" of the respective state.

[SafeDrive0107]

Well folks, I did a trip from Bangalore to Ulundurpet via Salem on 14-Jan and returned on 15-Jan and my next trip was Bangalore to Salem on 29-Jan with return on the same day. I noticed that although the tag was recognized in all the toll booths, I don't see the amount debited from my account. In fact, the total amount deducted for both these trips together is only around Rs.300. Looks like there is some system issue after the upgrade that the Fastag system went through. Anyone else noticing this?

[rajakumar]

Originally Posted by SafeDrive0107

Well folks, I did a trip from Bangalore to Ulundurpet via Salem on 14-Jan and returned on 15-Jan and my next trip was Bangalore to Salem on 29-Jan with return on the same day. I noticed that although the tag was recognized in all the toll booths, I don't see the amount debited from my account. In fact, the total amount deducted for both these trips together is only around Rs.300. Looks like there is some system issue after the upgrade that the Fastag system went through. Anyone else noticing this?

For a trip I did on 17/Dec/2016, I got the amount deducted today. So there is some inconsistency.By the way this is by VaniyambadiTollPlaza on the chennai bangalore highway.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by ragh_bhushan

Guys, I have been informed by the person who sold Fastag to me at Talegaon toll plaza that in case the tag reader fails to read your tag or if there is no hand-held scanner, then you can tell the toll operator your tag serial number and the appropriate amount will be deducted from your account. I have tried this on Mumbai-Pune Expressway and it worked for me.

Vashi toll naka has some issue, inspite of being in ETC lane, toll was not deducted 3 times.

I would not bother to give my serial number.They anyways don't care too much about small cars which they let go, its the trucks they stop if the reader is unreadable.

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

I guess the tag invalid issue in Pune - Mumbai expressway happens when you enter non ETC toll lanes. In Pune - Mumbai expressway, all toll lanes have tag sensors installed.
have had an case where the toll operator noted down by registration number in non toll lane and said it will be debited later. Some 2.5 weeks and it is yet to happen though.

I was told at Talegoan that i can enter any lane and reader would read it.
TAG invalid issue happens even when you enter ETC lane, has happened with me 2-3 times, where they manually enter the amount which is yet to be deducted.

[ragh_bhushan]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

I guess the tag invalid issue in Pune - Mumbai expressway happens when you enter non ETC toll lanes. In Pune - Mumbai expressway, all toll lanes have tag sensors installed. However, for Fastag I guess only dedicated ETC lanes work.

Remember someone mentioning the same earlier, also I faced the same issue when I entered non ETC lane with Fastag couple of weeks back.

I travel this route multiple times every week and have used Fastag in almost all lanes. Only times that it did not work for me was when I used the "wrong" side lanes opened by toll operators to ease the flow of traffic on long weekends.

Tag invalid issue did come up certain times including in the ETC lane but my observation is that it depends on speed at which you pass and distance you are able to maintain between front and rear cars. In all cases where I was shown invalid tag message on LED display, I gave my tag serial number and saw the message change to valid tag along with deducted amount and was able to pass smoothly.

Originally Posted by silverado

Vashi toll naka has some issue, inspite of being in ETC lane, toll was not deducted 3 times.

The tag readers does not seem to work on either of the toll plazas at entry / exit points of Mumbai. I have a tag that should work only on Vashi toll plaza but for the past 5 months that I have been using the same I did not have any issue on using the same at Airoli, Mulund or Dahisar as well. I just point the tag to them and they let me pass.

Although I have seen some operators checking tags at random with a handheld reader.

[BackInTheFold]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

FASTag availability in Bangalore as of 12-Jan-2017:

Status: Not Available
ETA: Another 15 days at least

I had visited BETL office on Monday and Imdad was not on his seat. I then asked the lady seated to issue RFID for BETL and she said stocks were still unavailable.

Today I called Imdad who expressed his inability and that the tags will take at least 15 more days and they have stopped accepting new application forms as well. He says there is absolutely no communication from the Bank (ICICI In this case) regarding the Tags.

So those who are hoping that the issue will get sorted soon, It's bad luck.

Hi, any update on the availability of tags at booths in general and in the Devanahalli booth in particular? Thanks!

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by BackInTheFold

Hi, any update on the availability of tags at booths in general and in the Devanahalli booth in particular? Thanks!

Been more than 2 weeks I drove to work now. So haven't been able to check.

However, I will be visiting Devanahalli Toll Booth today and provide an update.