Click it and Unblock the Notifications
FASTag Increase NHAI Revenue By 15 Per Cent; Commuter Wait Time By 2 Minutes
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said via a statement that the toll collection across the country's National Highway network has increased by nearly 15 percent after the government made the use if FASTags mandatory for paying toll fees.
According to Economic Times Auto, the average daily (NHAI) National Highway Authority of India revenue collection crossed the Rs 80 crore mark as compared to the average collection of Rs 68 crore from before the FASTags were made mandatory.
The Ministry expects revenue amounts to increase over time, and also expects the FASTag system to completely terminate any form of loss of revenue that is a byproduct of the cash collection system.
Ministry officials also said that there were reports of congestion at close to 45 toll collection plazas out of the total 530 plazas across the National Highway network. An Information Technology firm called Tolltimezero (toll time zero) has been tracking traffic activity across 488 toll plazas.
The company reports that that the average waiting time at toll plazas stood at 12 minutes through last Sunday. Average waiting times stand at 10.04 minutes for last year, and at 10.57 minutes over the month of November this year.
Reports also suggest that commuters witnessed confusion and long queues at toll collection plazas with non-tagged vehicles entering 'tag lanes', and with many commuters refusing to pay double the regular fee amount for being non-compliant with the FASTag rules.
In addition, there were reports of a technical glitch at some toll plazas that led to confusion. The Ministry has reportedly notified these toll collection plazas to allow commuters to travel without paying the fee as long as their vehicles are tagged and have sufficient balance to pay the fee.
The Ministry also reported that traffic conditions were satisfactory at 245 toll collection plazas, fairly good at 242 toll collection plazas, but needed improvements at 42 toll plazas.
The government is also considering collecting twice the toll fees as a fine for vehicles without tags entering a tag specific lane. Should the Ministry's proposal be passed, the owner/ driver in question will have to pay four times the standard toll fee.
Thoughts About The 12 Minute Wait And The 15 Per Cent Hike In Revenue
We expected an increase in the time spent at a toll collection plaza. While the Indian government pushes for laws to be passed, and actually passes them fairly quickly, they almost always mess up with the infrastructure, which is software and sign boards in this case.
And one can tell there is still corruption and thievery in this country just by looking at the revenue numbers. And while the government is doing everything to curb corruption, thievery, and bribery in the country, they're busy filling their coffers with the billions of rupees in taxes.
Continue with Google