FASTags gain popularity after RFIDs on highways
The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has decided to install FASTag reloadable tags in order to facilitate commuters to travel free not only on the 158 km of Outer Ring Road, but also across all toll plazas nationwide.
Commuters will be allowed to travel free through a toll plaza on National Highways if the vehicle has a valid FASTag with sufficient balance. The procedure would be a part of the electronic toll collection system.
The FASTag is a reloadable tag that allows automatic deduction of toll without having to stop for carrying out the cash transaction. The tag uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and is fixed on the windscreen of the vehicle once active. According to highly placed sources, the mechanism involved to use RFID tags ORR has been running at a snail’s pace. In order to compensate for the delay, the HMDA has come up with the idea of providing FASTag in the ORR stretch. The authority has also decided to have a trial run before entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the bankers.
HMDA commissioner T. Chiranjeevulu said that the RFID tags would not only be useful in the ORR but in any toll plaza across the country. He said based on the results of the trial, the HMDA would select a banker to issue FASTags. He said that the bankers would provide FASTags free of cost, where commuters could recharge the tags based on their requirement. Like RFID tags, FASTags would be attached to the windscreen of vehicles and the sensors at toll plazas would detect them automatically.
“The FASTag account can be operated online using the issuer agency’s web portal. The account can be recharged online using debit/credit card/ RTGS/NEFT or through Net-banking. For online recharge, convenience fees are levied against transaction processing fees. The tag can be obtained at toll plazas or banks. Some banks have online forms that can be filled up by customers. Once enquiry forms are filled, and a query is generated, the customer can visit the office to fill up a required form and submit necessary documents to create a FASTag account,” he said.
When asked about the delay in ETC, the HMDA commissioner said that the authority has been laying a dedicated internet cable with 100 MBPS at all toll plazas at all toll plazas along the ORR. He added once the cable work is complete, commuters can use RFIDs and FASTags. The passage of the Telangana site Private Universities Bill three months ago has revived the hopes that the campus of Georgia Institute of Technology, a prominent US-based technology university, will come up in Hyderabad.
The university had signed an MoU to set up campus in Hyderabad in 2007. The then YSR government had allotted 250 acres in Shamshabad for the campus but the plan did not take off due to the delay in passage of the foreign universities Bill by the Centre and the private universities Bill in the state.
The government has now received a fresh proposal from the institute. Besides, Reliance and Adani, groups have also come forward to set up private universities in the city.
The higher education department is currently in the process of finalising implementation guidelines of the Private Universities Act.
“Several international and national universities are keen to set up their campuses in Hyderabad. We are in the process of finalising operational guidelines of the Private Universities Act. A committee comprising higher education officials will be set up to monitor these universities,” said Mr T. Papi Reddy, chairman, TS Council of Higher Education.
The committee will issue a notification inviting applications from prospective universities to set up their campuses in the state, he said. Officials said the aim was to make private universities functional from the 2019-20 academic year.
The state at present has deemed universities most of which are confined to offering engineering and management courses. The government wants private universities to offer innovative courses.
The government want to relax land requirement norm for setting up universities. Earlier, there was proposal to have land in hundreds of acres but in the new Private Universities Act, the land requirement would be just 10 acres.
This has been done to ease pressure on the land bank and to avoid placing a financial burden on institutions to purchase a large chunk of land due to higher prices in Hyderabad and the outskirts.
Existing groups running a chain of professional colleges will be allowed to convert into private universities provided they meet the stipulated norms.