NHAI (Representative image)
NEW DELHI: Over half a crore highway car users have bought FASTag Annual Pass in past six months since this scheme was launched and there have been 26.5 crore toll payments using the pass @ Rs 15 each at plazas. Data show that there has been a 50% increase in trips of car users who usually took up to a maximum of 100 trips in a year, indicating how the annual pass has encouraged people for more highway travel.NHAI officials said around 28% of total car transactions recorded on the NH network are now being carried out through the FASTag Annual Pass. They added that increased penetration of annual pass among private car users will also help the highways authority for better implementation of Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) or barrier-less toll collection, which is being rolled out.“The region-wise analysis shows Chandigarh leads in terms of usage, accounting for 14% of total annual pass transactions across the country, followed by Tamil Nadu at 12.3% and Delhi at 11.5%. These figures demonstrate widespread adoption of the annual pass across diverse geographies from northern urban centres to southern states,” NHAI said.As per the highways authority Bijwasan toll plaza, Delhi-NCR has recorded the maximum of around 57% of total car crossings at the fee plaza using the annual pass, followed by Mundka in Delhi-NCR and Jhinjholi plaza in Sonipat, both registering around 53% of non-commercial vehicle crossings using the annual pass. Applicable across 1,150 fee plazas on national highways and national expressways, the annual pass eliminates the need to frequently recharge FASTag through one-time fee payment of Rs 3,000 for one year validity or 200 toll plaza crossings. The charge for annual pass will be hiked in April aligning with the revision of toll charges.The annual pass gets activated within two hours on the existing FASTag linked to the vehicle after payment of one-time fee through Rajmargyatra app or NHAI website.
