NHAI Records Highest Ever Single-Day Toll Collection As FASTag Gets Going With Hiked Sales In December

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on Sunday (12 January) collected highest ever amount of Rs 86.2 crore from toll charges, its chairman Sukhbir Singh Sandhu said, as per a Business Standard report.

"The NHAI has recorded its highest toll collection on a daily basis at Rs 86.2 crore two days back," Sandhu said at National Highways Excellence Award 2019 on Tuesday.

The highest daily collection via the new electronic system of FASTags also surged to Rs 50 crore (single day collection) in January this year in comparison to Rs 23 crore in November 2019.

The everyday transactions using FASTags have also gone up to about 30 lakh a day in January from 8 lakh in July last year, Sandhu informed.

By the end of December 2019, the number of FASTags was above 1 crore as over 30 lakh FASTags were issued in November and December 2019, with surged sales of 1.5-2 lakh FASTags in a day.

The central government on 15 December last year announced the FASTag-based electronic toll collection system to be mandatorily used across all toll plazas of the NHAI.

While the original plan was for a mandatory roll-out across all lanes of all toll plazas, the ministry subsequently modified the use of FASTags across at least 75 percent lanes of toll plazas and has restricted use of cash mode of payment to a maximum of 25 percent lanes of toll plazas.