Akhilesh Srivastava’s FASTag Reaches One-Million Mark

Akhilesh Srivastava, Vishwakarma recipient and Chief General Manager of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), at an event said that his FASTag system was receiving high acceptance from the people of the country. The NHAI CGM said that the project has reached the one-million mark, which is a five-fold increase since the previous year.

Akhilesh Srivastava said that the usage of the facility has increased by 15 percent and the NHAI is in plans to make FASTag available to 5 million vehicles by the end of 2018 where motorists can register their Toll payments electronically.

The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags - FASTag - are affixed to windscreens of vehicles. When a vehicle passes through the Toll booths, the system identifies the FASTag sticker and automatically deducts the Toll fee. The FASTag-enabled payment system decongests traffic flow and saves the time consumed for paying the bill and allows seamless travel for motorists on highways.

Srivastava says that the Government of India (GoI) plans to someday make digital payment mandatory for passing through Toll plazas in the country. Further, he stated that the initiative will not only reduce traffic congestion at Toll gates but also brings transparency in the highway operations. Srivastava added that NHAI and the Centre took inspiration from "developed" nations where more than 80 percent of motorists pay their Toll invoice electronically.

The NHAI is planning to integrate crediting instant discounts in FASTag to users. It also is encouraging manufacturers to affix FASTag stickers to vehicles in the initial stages of production itself, instead of giving the task to dealers or buyers.

From easing the Toll payments, the FASTag system will reduce the halting time at Toll booths, minimise managerial efforts, reduces fuel consumption, and brings transparency to monetary transactions. Srivastava says that the sale of one million FASTags reflects people’s acceptance to the digitalisation processes.

About Akhilesh Srivastava

NHAI’s Akhilesh Srivastava has dedicated over a decade of his life to enhancing commuter’s travel and road and highway infrastructure. Recognising the work of Srivastava in the development of road infrastructure in the country, the Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC), on 7th March 2018, felicitated him with Vishwakarma award.

Srivastava modernised the highways sector and digitalised Toll payments, implemented an emergency incident management system, and brought the ODR in the construction sector. He has religiously devoted his life to building the nation.

Apart from the FASTag project, Srivastava introduced Web Radio, Wi-Fi connectivity, green belts, solar energy panels, and more for the National Highways in the country. He also used technology LiDAR in all his assignments for getting accurate results.

Srivastava designed and implemented e-tendering for the Ministry of Defence, lead the construction of Wayside Amenities megaproject, introduced Intelligent Transport System (ITS) for the smart use of highways, incorporated Incident Management System (IMS) on Highways Networks of India, and more.

The FASTag system fuels the Centre’s Digital India initiative and enhance Toll operations and eases commuter’s journey. Akhilesh Srivastava is heading the project and supervising the status and implementation mechanism to the core.

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Harika Lingamaneni is a passionate content writer, where she has almost 6 years of experience in article writing. she is currently working on an article about Indian Highways.