 "The National Highways Authority of India introduced FASTags that uses radio frequency identification technology and allows cars to pass tolls without stopping for payment")
A seamless ride on the national highways with the help of the latest radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags or FASTags has hit a hurdle as the technology that was to facilitate it has suffered hardware glitches.
The system now needs to be rebooted for it to become operational.
The task at hand is likely to be accomplished by an international player that has expertise in the field and it may even be engaged in such projects in the future.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is in talks with Korea Express Highway Information Corporation (KEHIC) for a technological tie-up for revamping the RFID tags initiative.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) introduced FASTags that uses radio frequency identification technology and allows cars to pass tolls without stopping for payment. A RFID-enabled sticker is linked to a pre-paid account from which the payment is deducted every time one passes a toll.
According to some reports, digitising toll collection on the highways through RFID tags has suffered hiccups due to hardware issues. Only 2.5 million tags have been sold till now over the past two years, mostly for passenger vehicles.
“This is an issue which I haven’t been able to resolve,” Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari told Business Standard during an interaction. His ministry has invited KEHIC for a joint venture, which will give a fillip to the FASTags project.
It may be a technological tie-up of sorts where the Union government would seek KEHIC’s expertise in executing the project. He, however, did not comment when asked whether the government would scrap the RFID tags.
The government has made it mandatory for every new four-wheeler to have a tag from this December. Big banks such as ICICI and non-banking entities like Paytm have also entered the arena. According to estimates provided by payments processor Worldline, which works on FASTag implementation with eight banks, over 1.5 million tags have been issued already — 800,000 in the past four months. Revenue collection through FASTag clocked Rs 25 billion last month.
FASTags are currently offered by about 10 entities; these include ICICI, State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB). Among these, eight are also in the business of acquiring and operating toll plazas. According to the current revenue sharing arrangement, an acquirer gets 1.25 per cent of the toll value as commission while an issuer pockets 1.5 per cent.
The SBI executive said 80 per cent of the bank’s issuances were for passenger vehicles. This is something the industry is looking to change, as it is the commercial vehicles which travel a lot more through toll plazas. Their business gets impacted due to delays in travel time.
Customers reported hiccups such as double deductions from their account or they have to pay in cash despite money getting deducted from the FASTag.
“There’s no such indication about scrapping or revamp the RFID programme with any Korean company or otherwise. As of now, the RFID tag system is working fine and we are just moving to increase adoption as the take off in commercial vehicles has been slow. We are trying to do a lot more digital marketing about the tags to increase awareness. However, the proposal is yet to be approved by the top management,” said a SBI executive in the FASTag division of the bank.
