No need to pay toll if - Know details
There's good news for those who often face a traffic jam at the toll booth. To ensure the quick and smooth passage of vehicles at the toll plazas, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) issued new guidelines that users in a four-wheeler need not pay the toll if they have been waiting at the toll plaza for more than 10 seconds.
At the same time, the toll plazas have been instructed to draw a yellow line at a distance of 100 meters before the booth entry. If there are vehicles behind the yellow line due to some reason, then the vehicles will be allowed to pass without paying the tax. This line will be marked as a toll lane. This is being done to ensure 10 seconds of service time per vehicle even during peak hours at the toll plaza to ensure a minimal waiting period.
Since the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has successfully switched to 100% cashless tolling from the middle of February 2021, the overall FASTag penetration has reached 96% at NHAI toll plazas, with some places, reaching as high as 99%. As people have switched to FASTag, therefore, the document says that there's no wait time at toll plaza.
Keeping in view the growth of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) penetration in the country, the upcoming toll plazas can be constructed and designed as per traffic projections for the next 10 years to have an efficient toll collection process.
In the situation of the pandemic, FASTag helps in maintaining social distancing and minimal contact between the customer and the operator. It also helped in bringing more efficiency to toll operations and processes.