RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Sept.30: The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made FASTag mandatory for vehicles to collect toll electronically without any disruption in the movement of vehicles but sometimes vehicle users face problems.
Some of the problems came into the knowledge of Lagatar 24.com.
A car user coming from Bokaro to Ranchi shared his problem today giving the details.
“I started from Bokaro at 11.26am on Wednesday with a balance of more than Rs 1000 in my Fastag wallet. After an hour-long drive when I reached the toll plaza at Gola, I was asked to stop. Toll plaza staff asked me to pay double the required toll. When I showed reluctance saying get the toll be deducted by Fastag electronically they said it is not working though there was sufficient balance in my wallet. They stopped me for five minutes. In the meantime, a long snarl of vehicles developed behind my vehicle. Finding no way out, the plaza official allowed me to go,” the car user said.
“After another hour-long drive when I reached Ormanjhi toll plaza, the same thing happened. Finally, the toll was deducted from my wallet today,” the car user said laughing.
A city-based civil engineer shared another problem. “A car got damaged after a road accident a few months ago. When it was being carried by trailer, the toll from the damaged car was deducted not from the trailer,” the engineer said, sharing the technical problem in toll collection through Fastag.
An entrepreneur Pradeep Rajan said he faced a problem in July this year when he was on his way to Patna from Ranchi. “Despite having sufficient balance, the toll did not get deducted and we faced a problem,” Rajan said.
Attempt to contact regional officer of NHAI, Shailendra Mishra for his comment on the matter, did not yield result due to network issue.
“I am on a site visit and thus not getting a clear voice. Will talk to you later,” Mishra said. Later he informed through Whatsapp that he ‘will depute some officer’ to talk to this correspondent but no officer contacted for discussion on the matter.
An engineer aware of FASTag functioning said sometimes problems take place due to network issues.
“FASTag is an easy-to-use, reloadable tag that is affixed on your vehicle’s windscreen. It enables automatic deduction of toll charges, so you can pass through toll plazas without stopping to pay. Already, over 80 per cent of all tolls collected across national highways is through FASTag. Once the amount is added to your FASTag account, it may take up to 15 to 30 minutes to reflect in Toll Plaza servers as they are updated every 15 to 30 minutes. Sometimes it takes more time and causes problems for the people,” the engineer said.
