To shorten journey times for people using state and national highways, especially those with toll booths, the government mandated the use of FASTags on December 15, 2019. For the uninitiated, FASTag is essentially a device which comes in a sticker form with an embedded RFID. Sensors at toll gates read those RFIDs and the automatic boom barrier opens to let the motorist pass. As far as the deduction of toll is concerned, it automatically gets deducted from the user’s FASTag account.

Over the two months (approximately), the initiative has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Now, however, things have fallen into their designated places. But, there’s still a significant chunk of motorists that don’t use FASTag. They still prefer to pay in cash at toll plazas, even if it calls for considerable waiting times. To entice some of them (all seems improbable), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to give away FASTags free of cost.

Image source: ETAuto

There are a couple of catches. One, motorists will have to enrol for a FASTags between February 15 and 29, 2020. And two, only the cost of the FASTag, which is Rs 100, has been waived off. The figures for the applicable security deposit (Rs 200) and the minimum balance amount (Rs 200) remain unchanged. It is the second time that the government-run body has is offering a waiver on the FASTag fee. The first run was from November 22 to December 15, 2019.

If you are amongst those who haven’t got their vehicle FASTag-ed yet, you can purchase one from any authorised physical point-of-sale locations with a valid Registration Certificate of the vehicle. The list includes National Highway fee plazas, RTOs (Regional Transport Offices), Common Service Centres, transport hubs and petrol pumps. If you don’t know what any of that means, you can download the MyFASTag mobile application to get the details. Alternatively, you could visit the official website or call on the helpline number.