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

[m8002?]

Why cant they make this simpler? All tolls have the Fastag lane as the left-most or right-most? That way there is no confusion among the drivers and no changing lanes later.

I am not sure what logic they used to come up with some random lane in each toll plaza.

[findviru]

I was looking to get Fastag through HDFC and filled form online. Immediately I got an email from Sahaj e-Village Limited telling me about procedure and documents. This means I am not directly dealing with HDFC for Fastag. There is another entity who looks after this. I am not sure how this will work out from customer service point of view. I saw some members approached HDFC for Fastag. Hows your experience with Sahaj e-village limited?

[Altocumulus]

Originally Posted by findviru

I was looking to get Fastag through HDFC and filled form online. Immediately I got an email from Sahaj e-Village Limited telling me about procedure and documents. This means I am not directly dealing with HDFC for Fastag. There is another entity who looks after this. I am not sure how this will work out from customer service point of view. I saw some members approached HDFC for Fastag. Hows your experience with Sahaj e-village limited?

Sahaj e-village is common for all banks. They manage the Fastag infrastructure. The wallets/payments are managed the respective banks.

On a different note, did the Bangalore - Goa - Bangalore trip over the weekend. Had mixed experience with Fastag. There was a couple who did not have a dedicated lane while another did not accept Fastag and was supposedly not working for 5 months. However since others worked it still saved time. What was funny and added to my satisfaction was that there was a Volvo SC90 and an Audi Q5 which pelting like crazy enroute with speeds exceeding 180 kmph am sure. However after some time I used to find them charging at me in the rear view mirror. Basically since they did not have Fastag they were stuck at the toll gates while I happily breezed through the gates. It was somewhat like the hare-tortoise story.

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by m8002?

Why cant they make this simpler? All tolls have the Fastag lane as the left-most or right-most? That way there is no confusion among the drivers and no changing lanes later.

I am not sure what logic they used to come up with some random lane in each toll plaza.

Government has initiated plans to make all lanes fastag enabled. Necessary notification has been issued. In this heavily bureaucratic country, expect it happen soon (read soon as sometimes in future).

[NPV]

Not sure if anyone has experienced something similar:
I recharged my Fastag account before a trip in June and the amount was credited to the CUG wallet as that was the default selection on the recharge page (my mistake, I did not change it to Tag account) and I didn't get the option to pay using Retail Internet Banking as well so paid transaction/convenience fee.

I did not pay much attention to the Tag account/CUG wallet and went on the trip and the tag worked at all tolls.

Last weekend, when I logged in to the portal, I noticed that the balance was -50 something , but CUG balance was Rs.500 which was the amount I had recharged the previous time.
Immediately did a balance transfer to the tag and also recharged with another Rs.500 - this time I selected the "Pay to tag account" option and also saw that Retail Internet Banking was available and used that so did not pay any convenience fee.

After the balance transfer, I received an SMS saying the tag has been reactivated, so was wondering if that was due to the balance going negative.

After the trip, checked the portal again today and the history shows that the tag was indeed removed from blacklist on completion of the balance transfer from Wallet to Tag account.
Now, when I go to the recharge page, I do not see the option of CUG wallet and when I go the Balance transfer page, it says I do not have multiple tags!
This does make sense, but why was the Wallet option coming up till 3-4 days ago ?

Does anyone know if the ICICI Fastag portal is doing some kind of AB Testing and the portal options/features are toggling based on some parameters ? Only thing I could figure was that I logged in today from another network as compared to last time

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by NPV

Now, when I go to the recharge page, I do not see the option of CUG wallet and when I go the Balance transfer page, it says I do not have multiple tags!
This does make sense, but why was the Wallet option coming up till 3-4 days ago ?

Does anyone know if the ICICI Fastag portal is doing some kind of AB Testing and the portal options/features are toggling based on some parameters ? Only thing I could figure was that I logged in today from another network as compared to last time

I have only one account and CUG option is still available for me. As you said it doesn't make any sense for people holding only one Tag.



Also, when the balance went in negative for you, they could have deducted from the CUG account, wonder why they didn't use this option.

[sachinpk]

Folks - the FastTag lane at Attibele check post seems to have got blocked. They are building some sort of barrier there. Yesterday had to goto Hosur early in the morning during heavy rains. Finally I just switched to the "VIP route" on the left of the FasTag lane. The guard there how ever did not even come out of the booth, and I think he saw me waving to the FastTag on the windshield (it was pitch dark). He just opened the barrier and waved me through.

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Folks - the FastTag lane at Attibele check post seems to have got blocked. They are building some sort of barrier there.

The lane on the right side to the blocked one has Fastag enabled. I passed through this one without any issues.

[theexperthand]

Originally Posted by NPV

Does anyone know if the ICICI Fastag portal is doing some kind of AB Testing and the portal options/features are toggling based on some parameters ? Only thing I could figure was that I logged in today from another network as compared to last time

+1.

I could see the CUG option earlier but when I recharged the tag last month, I couldn't see it. I selected the charge tag option and did the charging via retail banking.

--Anoop

[NPV]

Fastag experience from recent trip to Palakkad and back (left on Sunday and returned on Monday to escape the holiday traffic):
Onward (Bangalore-Palakkad):
1. BETL was closed, seems like some repairs. On the return journey it was open, but couple of places on right lane there was work in progress
2. Attibele - Fastag lane manned by guard, scanned automatically
3. Krishnagiri - Fastag lane manned by guard, there were couple of long trucks in front but took more than a minute for each vehicle. When I reached near the booth, found that an attendant was using a handheld scanner and it very slow, he said the automatic scanner wasn't working after the heavy rains the previous day
4. Thoppur - Fastag lane manned by guard, the automatic scanner along the lane did not seem to detect the tag but on reaching near the booth, the green light lit up and the booth had an attendant inside to control the barrier. He was also accepting cash in case the tag did not work.
5. Omalur - Fastag lane manned by guard, tag was detected automatically
6. Vaigundam - Fastag lane manned by guard, tag was detected automatically
7. Vijayamangalam - Fastag lane manned by guard who inspected the tag for a long time before letting me in, none of the green lights lit up and the booth did not have an attendant and no barrier as well. I thought it was a free pass but later received an SMS for deduction of toll
8. Karumathampatti - Fastag lane manned by guard, tag was detected automatically, there was a digital sign that displayed "Valid Tag" and another one that displayed vehicle number, but it displayed balance as "Rs.0"!
9. L&T Coimbatore bypass - does not accept Fastag, P-A-I-N-F-U-L experience as usual, too much criss-crossing local traffic (drive very carefully and be alert always), most plazas had just one booth operating and need to keep showing the receipt at each plaza
10. Walayar - Fastag lane manned by guard, tag was detected automatically

Return (Palakkad-Bangalore):
1. Similar experience like onward, Fastag worked at all the tolls except Attibele (as noted below). I was dreading Thoppur and Krishnagiri but both were fine, in fact I was the only one in the Fastag lane at Krishnagiri! Also noticed a new big signboard at Thoppur saying "ETC lane start here Lane 11" or something like that, it's the second lane from left
2. Attibele was chaotic with long lines, criss-crossing, etc. Based on earlier experiences, stuck to extreme left behind an inter-state bus and when I reached near the Fastag lane (lane 2 from left), found that it was blocked and there was some work in progress. When I asked the guard, he said I need to be on lane 3 for Fastag. I just decided to pay cash so continued behind the bus on lane 1. A little ahead, another toll staff walked up and asked me to move to extreme left beside the bus who was transacting at the booth on right side of the lane 1. They had made vehicles form 2 lines inside lane 1 and most of the others on extreme left had the day pass or were paying cash to another attendant who was outside on the left side.
When my turn came, I told I have Fastag and he said that I need to be on lane 3 and I told him there wasn't even signage to that effect, how was I to know. Just as I was about to hand over the cash (had already kept it ready during the wait), he waved me on, so did not pay here. Took about 15 minutes to exit the toll.

Some notes:
1. Using guards to manually control the Fastag lane is an overhead and slows down the process, but seems like no other way at least for now
2. The guards aren't trained to recognize tags and take their own time to decide whether to allow the car or not, sometimes needs negotiating with them (my ICICI Fastag was from the first batch and does not resemble the ones that are issued currently)
3. During heavy traffic periods like holidays, these lanes are almost useless unless they continue to be left as dedicated lanes but even then it can get difficult to reach the lanes with so many pseudo lanes formed and criss-crossing that takes place

Hope all lanes at toll plazas are Fastag enabled soon.

[itwasntme]

Planning a Bangalore - Tirupati trip next week. Couple of queries:

1. How many tolls are there on the BLR - Chittoor - Tirupati route?

2. Are they FASTag-enabled? If so, are they clearly signposted?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Planning a Bangalore - Tirupati trip next week. Couple of queries:

1. How many tolls are there on the BLR - Chittoor - Tirupati route?

2. Are they FASTag-enabled? If so, are they clearly signposted?

This needs to be a sticky on the first post -

1 - http://tis.nhai.gov.in/ has details on tolls along any route and what amount

2 - Whether fastag enabled or not is a continuously changing thing, new fastag lanes keep getting added, or in some cases due to equipment breakdown, vendor change etc, existing fastag lanes are deactivated.

[prkiran]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Planning a Bangalore - Tirupati trip next week. Couple of queries:

1. How many tolls are there on the BLR - Chittoor - Tirupati route?

You can use this for finding the number of tolls: http://nhtis.org/nhai/map.htm

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Planning a Bangalore - Tirupati trip next week. Couple of queries:

1. How many tolls are there on the BLR - Chittoor - Tirupati route?

2. Are they FASTag-enabled? If so, are they clearly signposted?

There are three tolls. Hoskote, Mulbagal(Little while after Kolar) and Nangli(end of the beautiful road at KA border). The toll at Nangli is beautifully maintained, with clean booths and a clean restroom. All three tolls have Fastag and it is strictly followed. While in Hoskote, the Fastag lanes are immediate to the median, the other two tolls have it at the either ends of the lanes. It is clearly marked and visible. After that, the road becomes a narrow two lane road which has no tolls, or rather not worthy of one.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

1. How many tolls are there on the BLR - Chittoor - Tirupati route?

2. Are they FASTag-enabled? If so, are they clearly signposted?

There are 3 tolls - Hoskote (just after KR Puram), Mulbagal and another one near the state border on the Karnataka side.

Not sure about Fastag on this route (remember seeing it at Hoskote), don't remember as it is a long time since I traveled on this route.

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Also, when the balance went in negative for you, they could have deducted from the CUG account, wonder why they didn't use this option.

Exactly, and after the balance transfer I received another SMS saying the CUG balance is low and I need to recharge it

Originally Posted by hserus

1 - http://tis.nhai.gov.in/ has details on tolls along any route and what amount

Originally Posted by prkiran

You can use this for finding the number of tolls: http://nhtis.org/nhai/map.htm

The site is not yet updated with the 3rd toll (Nangli) at the Karnataka-Andhra border, it shows just Hoskote and Mulbagal.