The Tamil Nadu Road Development Company will be implementing FASTag toll collection system at toll plazas on the East Coast Road (ECR) to Puducherry, by end of April 2020. Further, the toll plazas in Uthandi, Mamallapuram and Hanumanthai will also follow. The move will help in getting rid of the queues on the plazas and will smoothen the traffic flow.
Due to a delay in the import of cargo the implementation of FASTags got delayed, but, as per sources from the TN Road Development Company, said, “Our software is ready and only has to be migrated with the NHAI’s. The equipment had to be imported and that took some time.” More than 10,000 vehicles a day take the ECR daily and the number increases to 13,000 a day at weekends.
Although, due to delay in implementation of the system, a few people faced issues as they had the FASTtag card but still had to wait and in a queue and pay cash.
Over one lakh people take the Rajiv Gandhi Salai road and cross plazas at Perungudi, Akkarai Road, Medavakkam Road and Navalur. Therefore, by the first week of April the FASTag system will be in place on the stretch, added the official.
Toll plazas on the 62-km stretch of the Chennai Outer Ring Road will start operating once the FASTag system is in place. FASTag implementation in the Tamil Nadu, at 46 plazas under the control of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), hovers around 65 percent.
In the second week of February, it was 66 percent at plazas under the Chennai regional office (RO) and 60 percent at plazas under the Madurai RO. In the present week, it was 62 percent under the Chennai RO and 58 percent under the Madurai RO.
