The Fastag track could be key to the government's ambitious programme

Investment in public infrastructure will be essential to pull the economy out of the massive downturn the pandemic has imposed

Amid a softening of rules and lowering of penalties by all arms of the central and state governments in the middle of the lockdown, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways went the other way. From May 15, it decreed that vehicles that do not have a functioning Fastag pasted on their windows are being asked to pay double the fees chargeable if they enter a Fastag lane at a toll plaza on a highway.

Till the new orders, the penalty was reserved only for vehicles that encroached on the Fastag lane without the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID). Those