Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 3: Though Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has made it mandatory to implement FASTags on National Highway toll plazas, since January 15 but at Sarore toll plaza there is merely one FASTag lane and three non-FASTag lanes for incoming vehicles to Jammu.
According to the last order issued by Union Ministry of Road Transport had said that at least 75 percent lanes at toll plazas must use the electronic toll collection FASTag and 25 percent of FASTag lanes had to be treated as hybrid lanes for a month, on which cash would be accepted till January 15.
Though earlier the last date of implementation was December 15, 2019 but to avoid inconvenience to the public the last date was extended till January 15, so that vehicle holders could buy FASTag.
But surprisingly, after lapse of 19 days since lapse of extended deadline to implement FASTag, it appears that the rules of Union government were still not implemented at Sarore Toll plaza. “For the vehicles coming from Lakhanpur to Jammu, at Sarore toll plaza there are four lanes out of which only one is FASTag lane, while three others are non-FASTag lanes”, the vehicle owners informed Early Times, adding that even at the one FASTag lane, the system was not properly working.
“My vehicle is affixed by FASTag and when I reached Sarore Toll plaza, even the vehicles without FASTags were also allowed along exclusive FASTag lane. When my turn came, the system didn’t authenticate the FASTag causing inconvenience. Then an employee of Toll plaza was called, who had a mobile FASTag checking machine with which the FASTag slip was verified”, a car owner informed, adding that at other toll plazas FASTags are properly working and it took no time to pay the toll and subsequent deduction from account.
“As per the order of Union government, there should be only one lane, on which cash is allowed but at Sarore toll plaza 75 percent lanes are non FASTag, while only one is FASTag. Even on the only FASTag lane, cash is allowed, causing inconvenience to the public”, another vehicle owner said, adding that proper system should be installed there so that the vehicle owners would not face problems. |
