The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has announced that from this January 1, FASTags will be made compulsory for all old and new vehicles manufactured before 25 December. The facility which was introduced in 2016 to ensure smooth passage of vehicles through all Toll Plazas is going to be fully effective from January 1, 2021.
The announcement was made by Union minister for road transport, highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari on Thursday. Addressing a virtual function he said that FASTags will be quite useful for commuters as no more they have to stop at Toll Plazas to pay in cash and thus they will save fuel and time. The FASTag facility after launch in 2016 reached the 1 lakh mark which later went up to 7 lakh in 2017 and 34 lakh in 2018.
In November this year, the ministry issued a notification making FASTags compulsory from January 1, 2021 for all old vehicles sold before December 1, 2017. As per the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, FASTag also has been made compulsory for registration of new vehicles since December 1, 2017.
Besides, it was mandated that the transports owners would be required to produce FASTags for the renewal of fitness certificates of their vehicles. For getting a third party insurance, FASTag has been made compulsory and it will come into effect starting from 1 April, 2021.
So if you have not purchased FASTag for your vehicles till now, then ensure to get it before New year. Else you might suffer from next year.