Paliyekkara Toll Plaza | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Paliyekkara (Thrissur): As the FASTag (electronic toll collection system) has been made mandatory, huge traffic block is experienced at Paliyekkara Toll Plaza. When more vehicles that do not have FASTag arrived at the plaza, many vehicles got stuck in the block.
Currently, vehicles without FASTag are allowed to pass through a single lane. The passengers requested that other lanes should be opened for them at least during the heavy rush hours. The vehicles without Fastag will have to pay twice the amount as toll.
FASTags was made mandatory on National Highway toll plazas from Monday midnight. The deadline fixed by the National Highway Authority to convert to FASTag system ended on Monday. With this, all 12 tracks to both directions of the toll plaza were changed to FASTag tracks.
Almost all banks have opened FASTag counters near the toll plaza. The authorities said that 12,000 among the 44,000 vehicles that use local free pass have converted to FASTag at present. Upto 5000 local vehicles take free pass through the plaza every day.
The Union Transport Ministry made FASTags compulsory by amending the Central Motor Vehicle Act. FASTags were implemented from January 2019. Although the ministry informed that it would be made mandatory from last December, it was postponed to January and later to February 15.
Through FASTag, the money will be levied from the electronic chip pasted on the windshield of the car when it reaches a toll plaza. The details regarding the money that was charged will reach the vehicle owners’ phone when they cross the toll plaza.
With the arrival of FASTags, vehicles can now cross toll plaza in 3 seconds after paying the money. The FASTag card activation charge is Rs 100. Rs 500 has to be paid in the first transaction including Rs 200 as a refundable deposit and Rs 200 as a minimum instalment.
In old vehicles, FASTags can be acquired from toll plazas and from the branches of 23 banks that have been approved. It can also be done online via Amazon and Paytm. The identification documents of the owner and the vehicle should be produced in order to register.
As per statistics on December 31, almost 80 percent of the vehicles have been converted to FASTag. The toll plazas in Kochi, Kumbalam and Paliyekkara in Thrissur have been converted completely to FASTag.
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