NHAI to ease the commuters Journey with the deployment of

FASTag
Trade and commerce are the vital driving factors for growth in India. National Highways in India
are considered as trade arteries as they facilitate 40 % of trade even though they constitute only
2% of the roadways. For that reason, the Government of India (GoI) is leaving no stone unturned
in developing the National Highway Network.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is a statutory body of Government
of India, works under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). It has been
assigned to development and maintenance of National Highways. So, it has embarked on
reforming the National Highway network.

NHAI has set up a separate division named Highway Operations division to look after the
development pertaining to highways. Mr Akhilesh Srivastava, CGM (Highway operations and
IT) of NHAI, is one of the personalities who has been instrumental in the development of
Highways. Under Mr Srivastava’s astute leadership, the NHAI has been successfully
implementing the FASTag system.

FASTag, which is also referred as Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), is a landmark reform in the
history of NHAI. FASTags are Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Commuters need to
mount FASTags to their vehicles’ Windscreens to enable RFID sensors to detect the vehicle and
deduct the Toll without manual intervention. Prior to that, Commuters need to link their unique
FASTags to bank accounts.

FASTag system has reduced the travel time to commuters and soon, every NHAI’s Toll Plaza is
going to get a dedicated FASTag lane. And, the GOI made it mandatory to have FASTags for
every vehicle purchased after November 2017.

The fastag system is allowing NHAI to tap the data related to commuter traffic, which will be
helpful to execute the future projects of NHAI. Even traders are feeling happy for the effective
implementation of the FASTag system as it is cutting travel cost as well as time. So, gone are the
days where Highways’ commuters have to wait hours (at times) near Toll Plazas to pass through
the toll gate. This is definitely good news for the logistics sector of India, which have been
helping traders and the general public.