FASTag still in slow lane at toll plazas in Tricity

By: Piyush Sarna
MOHALI: Even though the government has extended deadline to make FASTag mandatory thrice since December 1, many vehicle owners have still not switched to FASTag, leading to long queues in cash lanes at Dappar as and Chandimandir toll plazas.
Going by the data the of Chandimandir toll plaza, provided by officials on Wednesday, a total of 27,923 vehicles crossed the plaza, out of which 12,977 went through the cash lanes, while at Dappar, 29,935 vehicles crossed the toll plaza, of which 13,286 went through the cash lanes.

"We conducted a trial on January 13 to make sure things go smoothly the day deadline expires. In the last week of December, we had installed LED boards displaying about the Cash lane but still the cash users somehow entered the FASTag lane, causing inconvenience to others," said Deepak Arora, the manager of Dappar Toll Plaza.
At both toll plazas, there was one cash lane on each side, in which long queues of vehicles were seen, while the FASTag lanes remained smooth throughout.
At the Chandimandir Toll Plaza, the officials opened an extra lane of cash for the peak hours. "To prevent long queues and inconvenience to the people, we divert traffic towards the extra lane," said Navdeep, the toll plaza manager. The authorities are having a tough time managing the traffic at the toll plazas.
Meanwhile, the authorities said, around 1,200 blacklisted vehicles enter the FASTag lanes on a daily basis at the Dappar plaza. Also, officials of both toll plazas claimed that some people have just put up a FASTag sticker to enter the lane and the guards could not stop those, since it was difficult for them to make out whether those had adequate balance.
Proper guidance to the people on how to use FASTag is still lacking, said the authorities. "The kiosks set up are just an easy way to earn money. Further, they just sell the FASTag to people and don't guide them properly. Once a senior citizen came to the FASTag lane with insufficient balance and had a quarrel with us when he was told informed that he did not have the required balance. He told us that he had paid an amount of Rs 550 to a sellers, who had told him that entire money will go towards balance," said an official at Chandimandir toll plaza.
Similarly, the officials of Dappar Toll Plaza told TOI that even the owners of blacklisted vehicles argue with them over the issue of balance. "They say, how come your machine is showing insufficient balance when we have sufficient amount in the account?" said Deepak Arora.