FASTag annual pass a perfect gift for travellers this Diwali: Govt

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) The National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) 'Rajmargyatra' app enables users to gift the FASTag annual pass, the government said on Saturday, urging citizens to consider this “perfect gift for travellers” during the Diwali and festive season.

Users can activate a pass by clicking the “Add Pass” option on the application and then entering the recipient’s vehicle number and the contact details of whom they want to gift the pass. After simple OTP verification, the annual pass will get activated on the FASTag attached to that vehicle, allowing for seamless travel without the need for frequent recharges, an official statement said.

FASTag annual pass provides a seamless and economical travel option to the National Highway users and is applicable on about 1,150 toll plazas across India.

The annual pass costs Rs 3,000 and is valid for one year or up to 200 toll plaza crossings. The pass is applicable for all non-commercial vehicles with a valid FASTag. The annual pass gets activated within two hours on the existing FASTag linked to the vehicle after payment of a one-time fee payment through the 'Rajmargyatra' App.

When the limit is reached, the FASTag automatically switches to standard pay-per-trip mode. For point-based toll plazas, each one-way crossing counts as a trip, and a return counts as two. In closed or ticketed systems, a complete entry-to-exit journey counts as one trip.

Some FASTags, especially those issued for new vehicles, may only be registered with the vehicle's chassis number. The Annual Pass cannot be activated on such FASTags, and they should be updated to include the complete vehicle registration number.

Payment for the pass can be made via UPI, debit or credit card, or net banking, and the FASTag wallet balances cannot be used for this purpose.

The statement from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that the FASTag annual pass has gained over 25 lakh users and processed approximately 5.67 crore transactions within its first two months of launch.

--IANS

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