FASTAG increases vehicle wait time by 29%

NEWDELHI: Even as digital toll payments through FASTAGS across national highways increased to at least 60% of total toll collections from December 2019 to January 2020, the average waiting time of vehicles at toll plazas went up by 29%.

To be sure, much of this is because not everyone has moved to FASTAGS yet, and the data mainly highlights teething troubles in the digital payment method across national highways.

Electronic toll collection at highway plazas has gone up by at least 60%, the transport ministry said. This is only to be expected since the rules mandate electronic payments. Data on whether there was an increase in overall toll revenue isn’t available yet — this will show whether FASTAGS have met one of their objectives, preventing leakages in the system.

According to data from the central toll plaza traffic monitoring system, which is currently live at 488 plazas, the average waiting for a vehicle between November 15, 2019 and December 14, 2019 was 7 minutes and 44 seconds. This went up to 9 minutes and 57 seconds between December 15, 2019 and January 14, 2020.

The average waiting time is calculated by the time travelled by each vehicle to cross the toll plazas and is calculated within 1km distance of the plazas. The average wait time at toll plazas in 2018 was 8 minutes 16 seconds as compared to 9 minutes and 12 seconds last year (till November 2019). On December 17, Hindustan Times reported that on the day FASTAGS started being used, December 15, the average waiting time of vehicles at plazas increased from 10 minutes and four seconds on December 15, 2018 to 12 minutes. The average waiting time of vehicles on December 14, a day before the implementation, stood at 10 minutes and 57 seconds.

On average, nearly 6 million vehicles cross toll booths across India everyday, according to data from the Central Toll Plaza Traffic Monitoring System.

According to the monitoring system, there is an approximate yearly loss of over ₹12,000 crore due to fuel wastage at toll plazas.

AVERAGE WAITING WENT UP FROM 7 MINS 44 SECS BETWEEN NOV 15 AND DEC 14 TO 9 MINS 54 SECS BETWEEN DEC 15 AND JAN 14, DATA SHOWS