National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has taken the ‘One Vehicle, One FASTag’ initiative that aims to discourage user behavior of using single FASTag for multiple vehicles or linking multiple FASTags to a particular vehicle.

The move is taken with an aim to enhance efficiency of the Electronic Toll Collection system and provide seamless movement at the Toll Plazas, the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways said on Monday.

NHAI is also encouraging FASTag users to complete the ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) process of their latest FASTag by updating KYC as per RBI guidelines. FASTags with valid balance but with incomplete KYC will get deactivated/blacklisted by banks post 31st January 2024.

“Only the latest FASTag account shall remain active as previous tags will be deactivated or blacklisted after 31st January 2024,” it said.

Users must ensure that KYC of their latest FASTag is completed. FASTag users must also comply with ‘One Vehicle, One FASTag’ and discard all the earlier issued FASTags through their respective banks, the ministry has instructed.

The NHAI has taken this initiative after the recent reports of multiple FASTags being issued for a particular vehicle and FASTags being issued without KYC in violation of RBI’s mandate.

Apart from this, FASTags are sometimes deliberately not fixed on the windscreen of the vehicle, resulting in unnecessary delays at the toll plazas and causing inconvenience to fellow National Highway users.

Notably, with a penetration rate of around 98 per cent and over 8 crore users, FASTag has revolutionised the Electronic Toll Collection system in the country.

In a separate development, the NHAI will be putting in place GPS-based toll collection on various routes across India with an aim to cut toll booth congestion. The pilot will be tested on select highway stretches before making it operational across the country, Anurag Jain, secretary of Roads Ministry, had said.

GPS tolling will reportedly replace the current FASTag system, which uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for toll payments directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it or toll owner.

The NHAI says the system is in development phase and post response it will be implemented on a large scale.