India / FASTags will help save ₹20,000 cr annually on fuel: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: The adaptation of mandatory FASTag has helped to reduce the average waiting time of vehicles at toll plazas to 150 seconds this year against 464 seconds last year, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday.

"The reduction in waiting is likely to save fuel worth Rs 20,000 crore for the country. Besides, this is expected to reduce carbon emission by 5 lakh tonnes per month," Gadkari said.

He was speaking after launching a live monitoring system of toll plazas across the national highways to study waiting time and traffic queue on a real-time basis.

"Since the implementation of the FASTag mechanism, national highway toll plazas alone have crossed 6 million transactions worth Rs 100 crore. In addition, there is a 10%  growth in the number of transactions on a weekly basis," he said.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways made FASTags mandatory from February 15. According to the Ministry, vehicles without having functional FASTags will have to pay double road user charges at toll plazas.

Gadkari said that India is moving towards a toll-booth free mechanism, and the Centre's income has increased by Rs 10,000 crore due to the implementation of mandatory FASTag.