Mandatory Fastag to save Rs 20,000 crore per annum on fuel, says Nitin Gadkari

Mandatory FASTag for highways will help save Rs 20,000 crore per annum on fuel and boost the revenue by at least Rs 10,000 crore, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday

Launching a live monitoring system to assess the live condition at toll plazas pan-India and releasing a rating system for national highways here, the road transport and highways minister the rolling out of the live monitoring and highways ratings was a step towards achieving perfection in terms of highway use, construction and quality.

This is a step towards making travel on the highway even easier, said Nitin Gadkari. Addressing the media, Nitin Gadkari said,

This will result in a significant saving to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore per annum on fuel cost," Gadkari said while addressing the media.

Following the mandatory payment of user fee through FASTag at toll plazas from 16 February, 2021, toll collection has seen consistent growth, and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said its daily toll collection through FASTag has reached about Rs 104 crore.

Gadkari said a new GPS based system for tolling is in the offing, where highways commuters will be required to pay only for the distance travelled on the basis of entry and exit points.

After the introduction of e-tolling in December 2016, the toll plazas covered under it reached 794 on 28 February from 403 toll plazas in March 2018.

Gadkari said through live monitoring of toll plazas, one can not only access the live situation at any toll plaza, including delays, but also will get a history of the traffic and an almost realistic forecast of the traffic situation.

"There is zero waiting time at 80 percent of the total toll plazas and toll collection through electronic tolling has reached 93 percent from 80 per cent during the last fortnight after the FASTag was made mandatory," Gadkari said.

Live monitoring of toll plazas will be a great tool for income tax, GST and many other departments. The government will continue to improve in this regard. The Center has facilitated this platform to eight states.