In order to ensure smooth and quick passage of vehicles at the toll plazas, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued guidelines to ensure service time of not more than 10 seconds per vehicle even during peak hours at the toll plazas on the National Highways.
The new guidelines will also ensure seamless flow of traffic at the toll plazas by not allowing vehicles to queue up more than 100 metres. Although at most of the toll plazas, there is no waiting time after mandatory 100% Fastag, even then if there is queue of waiting vehicles of more than 100 metres due to some reason, the vehicles will be allowed to pass without paying toll till the queue comes within 100 metres from the toll booth. For this purpose, a yellow line at a distance of 100 metres from toll booth will be marked in each toll lane. This is to inculcate a further sense of accountability in toll plaza operators.
Since NHAI has successfully transitioned to 100% cashless tolling from the middle of February 2021, the overall FASTag penetration at NHAI Toll gates has reached 96% and stands at 99% at many toll plazas. Keeping in view the growing Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) penetration in the country, it has been emphasized to have a new design and construct the upcoming toll plazas as per traffic projections for the next 10 years to have an efficient toll collection system.
As social distancing has become the new normal, more and more commuters are opting to use FASTag as it removes the chances of any direct contact between the drivers and toll operators. The constant growth and adoption of FASTag by the highway users is encouraging and has helped to bring more efficiency in toll operations.