FASTag on Yamuna Expressway likely to start from today

Thousands of commuters are likely to have the facility of paying the toll on the 165km Yamuna Expressway via FASTag from Thursday as the toll operator, Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL), has completed all formalities to make the facility operational

Thousands of commuters are likely to have the facility of paying the toll on the 165km Yamuna Expressway via FASTag from Thursday as the toll operator, Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL), has completed all formalities to make the facility operational. The implementation will take place after multiple delays in the past few months. Earlier it was supposed to start on April 1.

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The electronic toll collection system has already been implemented on all national highways, which are maintained by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). But, unlike the national highways in the country, the Yamuna Expressway is managed by a private operator, JIL, which had not been using FASTag for collecting toll payments from commuters. Since the toll collection was manual, commuters were facing inconvenience and long queues on the expressway.

“We have put in place all required infrastructure on the expressway so that we can start charging toll via FASTags. Now the process to integrate the Yamuna Expressway with rest of the national highways system is underway. If all is completed as planned, then toll collection via FASTag will start on Thursday, hopefully,” said Ashok Khera, vice-president, JIL.

The JIL had started installation of cameras and other equipment on the expressway after the Yauma Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) received complaints from commuters that JIL is yet to install safety features as recommended by a safety audit.

The Yeida had repeatedly warned the toll operator that it should either install FASTag at the earliest or face action.

“We had wanted the operator to start toll collection via FASTag at the earliest because a safety audit conducted following the orders from the Supreme Court had suggested so. The toll collection via FASTag will provide huge relief to thousands of commuters, who have to face inconvenience in paying toll manually unlike the other national highways. We hope now since all formalities related to the installation of censors and cameras are over, FASTag will start working,” said Arun Vir Singh, chief executive officer, Yeida.

The NHAI has recently issued guidelines for toll plazas with FASTag facility which will not allow queues longer than 100 metres from the toll gates. The new guidelines aim to reduce time taken to process toll fees to just 10 seconds per vehicle, even during peak hours. The rules also say that in case a queue gets longer than 100 metres, the vehicles at the front of the queue will be allowed to pass the toll gate without having to pay toll charges.