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Cash payments at toll plazas will be discontinued for travellers on national highways from April 10, the road transport and highways ministry has said. In a gazette notification, the ministry has said that in cases where a vehicle enters a fee plaza without a valid FASTag, users can still pay via Unified Payment Interface (UPI), but at a higher charge of 1.25 times the applicable toll fee. A senior NHAI official said that the move is aimed at reducing long queues at toll gates and make highway travel smoother for commuters. The official said that cash payments will no longer be accepted at the toll booths from April 10 and FASTag will remain the primary mode of toll collection, while UPI will serve as the fallback payment option for vehicles that arrive without a valid FASTag. "If the user of a vehicle enters a fee plaza without a FASTag or a valid functional FASTag, as the case may be, and opts to pay fee through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI), he shall pay 1.25 times of the
There are around 5.9 crore FASTags active across the country, of the total 11.86 crore FASTags issued so far, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. FASTag is an RFID passive tag used for making toll payments directly from the customer's linked prepaid, savings, or current account. Presently, more than 98 per cent of user fee on National Highways is collected through electronic toll collection system, the Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. "As of December, 2025, out of total issued 11.86 crore FASTags since inception, about 5.9 crore FASTags are active across the country and used for electronic toll transactions at National Highway Fee Plazas," Gadkari informed the Upper House. The number of average daily ETC transactions on NH fee plaza is around 105 lakh in 2025-26 (till December, 2025). The constant growth and adoption of FASTag by highway users is encouraging and has helped in increased efficiency in toll ...
The newly introduced FASTag annual pass facility has crossed the landmark figure of five lakh users across the country within four days, an official statement said on Monday. FASTag annual pass, applicable on about 1,150 toll collection booths on National Highways and expressways allowing users to cross 200 toll plazas in a year for a one-time payment of Rs 3,000, was launched on August 15. The facility has received an overwhelming response from the National Highway users across the country. Tamil Nadu led with the maximum number of annual pass purchases in the last four days, followed by Karnataka and Haryana, the statement said. Besides, maximum transactions through FASTag annual pass were recorded at toll plazas in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, it added. The pass is applicable for all non-commercial vehicles with a valid FASTag and gets activated within two hours of the one-time payment using Rajmargyatra app or the NHAI website.
The annual highway toll pass of Rs 3,000 for private cars, jeeps, and vans will be rolled out from Friday. Ahead of the roll out, the government has opened the pre-booking window for FASTag-based annual passes that allow users to cross up to 200 highway toll booths on a single recharge of Rs 3,000 within a year. A dedicated link for activation of the annual pass is available on the Rajmarg Yatra app. The link would also be available on the official websites of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The annual pass will be applicable only for non-commercial private vehicles such as cars, jeeps, and vans. It will allow seamless travel across National Highways without the need for repeated recharging of FASTag cards for toll payments. In closed tolling highways such as Delhi-Mumbai Expressway - where toll collection occurs exclusively at exit points - a single trip includes both entry and exit points. On the other hand, on