2 days Ago By Joy Sengupta
Pune: Kharadi resident Sumit Pendse and his family were returning to the city from Bengaluru via road last month, when they got stuck in a major traffic snarl at Khed Shivapur toll plaza along the Pune-Satara stretch of NH48. "It took us almost 45 minutes to cross the toll plaza. We couldn't even see any visible reason for the bottleneck.
FASTag was introduced to ensure that toll plazas remain congestion-free — but clearly this is not the case," the working professional told TOI. Early in Jan this year, another commuter echoed the same experience on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. "Talegaon toll plaza was completely clogged, and it took us 30 minutes to cross it.
An official manning the gate said one truck didn't have a proper FASTag, so the problem started therein," said Kothrud resident Bidhur Naik. Ironically, while National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials claim FASTag compliance at most toll plazas in Maharashtra is almost 100%, a host of factors visibly continue to plague its smooth implementation. Officials claimed these include travellers unwilling to pay toll despite stipulated regulations, indulging in arguments with toll officials, and not placing their FASTags properly, amongst other reasons.
"Such actions lead to major issues. Commuters must understand this. The Pune zone has six toll booths on the Pune-Satara, Pune-Solapur, and Khed-Sinnar highway stretches.
While toll collection has gone up and FASTag implementation is high, congestion is still occurring — the main reason is defiance towards paying toll, leading to arguments and blocking of lanes," a senior NHAI official in Pune told TOI. NHAI deputy manager in Pune, Ankit Yadav, agreed. "Some commuters need to be more considerate of others, know the rules and follow them," he said.
Another NHAI official, choosing to stay unnamed, told TOI, "As per regulations, people residing within a 20km radius of toll plaza don't have to pay toll. But they need a monthly pass of Rs350. In most cases, either the locals have no pass, or it is outdated.
When they are stopped, they create issues, leading to a delay for others. Meanwhile, people living outside the 20km radius also don't want to pay. All of this leads to clogging.
" Almost all toll plazas managed by NHAI in the state claim average FASTag compliance between 97-99%. For example, in Ahilyanagar, there are six toll plazas managed by NHAI, and their FASTag compliance is 97-99%, said officials. Similarly, in Thane zone, average FASTag compliance is 99% at two existing toll plazas.
If a vehicle doesn't have a valid FASTag, the owner is charged double the toll as a penalty. Another NHAI official said, "We need to follow a certain procedure before letting anyone pass without paying toll, if they are exempted as per the rules. Another problem is that people don't recharge FASTag accounts but claim to have done so.
Petty arguments break out. In most toll plazas, there are systems in place to recharge FASTags." However, he admitted, "At times, we cannot deny there are technical issues, too, but it is mostly not the case.
The number of vehicles on the roads has also increased. Further, during holidays, traffic pressure increases, leading to some delays." Meanwhile, commuters were not willing to take the onus for this failure.
Businessman Abhijit Jadhav, who travels via Pune-Satara highway often, said, "How can they just put all the blame on us? I have been stuck many times at toll plazas, and it is mainly due to technical issues. Their scanners are non-functional most times and then clogging occurs. Blaming everything on us is too convenient.
" What is FASTag? FASTag is a mandatory prepaid, electronic toll collection system using RFID tech to allow vehicles to pay toll without stopping for long at plazas. It's a small tag affixed to the vehicle's windscreen, linked to a prepaid account, that needs to be periodically recharged. A swipe automatically deducts toll charges when the vehicle passes through a FASTag lane at a toll plaza.
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