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-   -   FASTag RFID mandatory on all new cars from 1st December, 2017 EDIT:No cash payments from 01 Jan 2021 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/192070-fastag-rfid-mandatory-all-new-cars-1st-december-2017-edit-no-cash-payments-01-jan-2021-a.html)

Link to main FASTag thread

As the earlier FASTag thread was closed I'm creating a new thread. MODS please merge this thread to the earlier if you deem fit.

FASTag is presently operational at about 370 toll plazas across National Highways. The system is inter-operable and the same FASTag can be used across all toll plazas under the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) programme.Coming this December 1 the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a mandate for all new four-wheelers to have FASTag devices fixed on front windscreens by automobile manufacturers or authorized dealers.

As convenient it may seem for passing the toll without having to fiddle for finding that change but please do correct me if am wrong, as I understand that FASTag comes with monthly charges. Will the regular commuters be ready for paying this extra amount.?

Any thoughts BHPians?

There are no monthly charges for using Fastag. Only the initial set up (obtaining sticker, activating the RFID) costs ~500 IIRC. The rest you top up according to your needs. So this is a good move IF all the toll gates are converted into FASTag, else there would be no point in using it anymore.

There are no monthly charges. When buying user has to pay a one time ₹200 processing fees and another ₹200 security deposit (refundable when account is closed) Now that the manufacturer has to install them by rule, even that won't be necessary I guess. Even if it is, ₹400 when buying a car is hardly anything.

Good move but only one fastag lane will not be enough at toll gates. Recently I saw a couple of gates on NH75 having 2 fastag lanes. I'm sure it'll increase.

But the other problem is, like it is happening now, the fastag lanes will be blocked by cars without fastags driven by highly "intelligent" people. This will make fastag lanes also slow. :Frustrati

Thanks to a Team-BHP Fan (who prefers to stay anonymous) for sharing this!

I am cross posting from the other Fastag thread,

In my opinion, fitting Fastag with new cars is not going to improve the current situation, these new cars is going to be a very minute percentage considering the number of cars that we have on the highway. And it’s not a guarantee that all these new cars will enter the highway.

If they really want to make a difference and improve the current situation,

• Transport Ministry should understand on what they really want to achieve, are they happy with those nice posters with their pics which says "Easy to Cruise" and "Zip through the tolls"? OR do they really want to implement/improvise the situation at ground-level as well?
• They should enhance their current equipments and sensors with more powerful ones. Despite two years, there many booths that still depend on hand held devices because the automated scanner is not able to detect the tags, booths where trucks struggle to get and booths where these equipments have already failed.
• Then enable fastag at all lanes.
• Make Fastag mandatory for all vehicles, of course give some time and strict deadline.

Fitting the tag for just the new vehicles is really not a solution nor it is going to improve the current situation.

Only benefit is, these customers need not go through the pain of buying the Fastag again.

This Arun, I think will singularly make or break this move. Lot of FASTagged vehicles and only 1-2 lanes per toll will only result in frustration.

As the old saying goes 'You can take the horse to the water, but you cannot make it to drink' which will translate in this context as 'You can fit a Fastag at OEM, in the end its the user who has to load money and make actual use of it'. The way I see it, this will have very miniscule to no effect on the current situation.

Some of my observations from the few times I used Fastag:

- The scanning infrastructure itself is appalling, how often people have faced 'reverse maadi, left nodi' nonsense. Even at creep speed, many times, tags dont get detected. This is first that has to be corrected, then expanded to all lanes.
- Better access control, having a person at the end who sees your and then lets you through is an awful way to implement.
- Strict action on non-compliant tolls, for example: Paranur, Athur, Sriperumbudur, Chennasamudram.
- Mandate all CVs to use Fastag, they form bulk of the users.

This is a great move by the Government, the whole story reads.

Source: Autocar India

How is the charging/recharging/account handling of the OEM fastag done here? Now if we buy paytm fastag we charge through paytm and if we buy bank fastag we charge through respective bank.

This is a very good step in the right direction.
We could expect the following changes in the future or at least this is what my wish is. :)
1. We could pay and load the FAStag in the first toll booth till the exit point and zip through intermediate toll plazas. This will increase the patronage among trucks and other not so tech-savvy guys.
2. No. of FASTag lanes to normal lanes be reversed. In future it will be one normal lane and all others are FASTag lanes.

I guess it will be a normal RFID tag , but Fastag compatible with any service provider. till the time it is in the factory, manufacturers will track as they are doing now with RFIDs that are not compatible with Fastag. Later the user can choose whichever service provider he wants (Paytm, ICICI, HDFC etc...) Somewhere in future, i wouldn't be surprised if we get porting facilities for this too.

Been scratching my head since a while thinking about just one phrase; not again!

First they come up with FASTag that no one uses!

Then demonitization ensures maximum truckers start depending on this, thus creating longer queues on FASTag lanes on some of the most busy highways - Mind you, bigger players in the private transport and freight industry use FASTag now and they rule the roads at night. So you are mostly likely to see longer queues on FASTag lane at nights than day.

While all this is happening, they expand the availability channels from 2 banks to almost 10 so it becomes easy to secure these while the No of lanes is still one.

On Nov 1st, while I was returning from breakfast drive with audioholic, I noticed the FASTag lane at Devihalli was closed towards Bangalore. Upon asking the guard, he wouldn't give a satisfactory answer and I had all the time to check on this. I park my car right there and walk out when the guard says "Boss has asked me to close the lane and not allow anyone".

I insist that I will only proceed through the FASTag lane and I am OK to talk to the manager wanting to know why it was closed (Traffic towards Bangalore was least on this day). The guard fearing that he would receive scoldings, said "come over, please go" indicating me to pass from the exempt lane meant for locals (Extreme left).

As I do this, 2 men (looked like contractors) holding some files yell at this guard asking why he allowed me. I didn't want to run away like I was not paying toll and so I duly stop - When I argue that they have been deliberately shutting down FASTag even on normal day with no traffic, he said the lane next to it is getting ready with weighing scale/sensor and indeed there was construction going on.

Hence, the fact that the FASTag lanes are getting expanded from 1 to at least 2 at most booths is true.

The biggest pain will be to experience this in future and we all are very well experienced now - FASTag unless implemented well and has stringent norms to disallow non tagged vehicles remains a dream and I don't know if we can see light at the end of this new tunnel now :Frustrati.

Conclusion:FASTag lanes' operation is directly proportional to the mood swings of the toll booth staff.

Sharing my very minuscule experience in last 1 months & nearly 2500 Km...

First trip was during a long weekend with heavy traffic; first 2 tollgates from Chennai don't have fastag, this means, cash or card only!! Except for just 2 tollgates up to Rameshwaram, they made me think as why I had bought Fastag.
1. All the lanes are blocked by cone & I had to wait until someone removes it for me to pass. Considering our civilized people, I was OK with this
2. Most of the tollgates don't recognize the tag & had to use the scanner manually during which the cash lanes appeared to be faster
3. On 2 occasions, a truck was stranded in the Fastag lane & the diverted me to regular lane & had swiped from the Fastag using swipe machine

The next 3 trips were during late hours on regular weekdays; Fastag lane only slowed us down as the cash lanes were much faster. I guess only at the tollgate humans are faster than machines :Frustrati Had to use Fastag because there was considerable amount of money loaded into the account

At this rate, I'm should I still stick with Fastag or a regular cash would help going forward

As far as I remember, FASTags were made compulsory somewhere in the later part of the year 2013.
My 2014 Nano has one RFID tag on top left corner (when viewed from inside the cabin) of front windshield.

Anyone having a car purchased in the year 2014 or after that can confirm.
Or something changed inbetween and made those RFIDs invalid?

Let is not again confuse a FASTag with the manufacturer provided RFID tag that comes attached to the windscreen on cars manufactured after 2013.
This news article is about FASTag now becoming mandatory for all new 4 wheelers registered after Dec 1st.

The purpose of the RFID tag was beyond just electronic toll payment (as envisaged) but FASTag is only for electronic toll.

• Fool-proof system that is efficient to read the tag from a distance and open the barrier
• A fallback system - In case the system fails, what is plan B and how will that get addressed when traffic has piled up
• Consistency - Ensure that each drive offers the same experience. I am yet to see such consistency with FASTahg lanes till now
• We are tired of users complaining about failures - Invalid Tag, Insufficient Balance, Tag not detected : Get hold of someone better who can install a system that is super good to mitigate these risks
• Hire bouncers - Many Highway bars have closed and they need jobs - They will ensure not to allow non tagged cars into tagged lanes :)
• Last but not the least - Make all lanes FASTag (Automated) and have just one cash lane and even with that charge 10% more for cash payers - The only way you can make them buy these tags

Wishful thinking again, I know.....

Only good thing I see here is that since they are mandating the manufacturers/dealers to register cars with FASTag, the owners won't cry foul that they don't want to spend precious time and money (200 Bucks) to buy a Tag because their highway usage is way too less.