Vehicle users on national highways who wish to pay toll charges in cash, but get into the non-cash lane, have started paying double the toll amount from Sunday. This was confirmed to BusinessLine by several National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials, who declined to be quoted.

There were tiffs and arguments as people tried to resist paying the double charge, but many users ended up buying FASTags after getting into such lanes. There were instances of people paying double the amount in non-cash lanes, said the officials.

From December 15, all national highway lanes were to be enabled to accept electronic payments through FASTags. However, one lane would accept both e-payments and cash. And, if users with cash got into dedicated electronic lanes, they would have to pay double the toll fee.

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However, in what could be some respite, the Centre has allowed the regional heads of NHAI to permit users to pay the toll in cash in up to 25 per cent of the lanes for another 30 days (till January 15, 2020).

This means in case of long queues in highways with six-eight lanes, the regional officers have the power to permit two lanes to accept toll charges in cash for some time, explained another NHAI official.

In Madhya Pradesh, the NHAI has enabled electronic toll collection in all lanes across all 43 toll plazas starting today. “Commuters can pay scheduled toll charges in one dedicated cash lane to pass by. But commuters who get into an electronic payment lane without valid FASTags will have to pay double the fee amount,” Vivek Jaiswal, General Manager, NHAI, told BusinessLine .

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