Chennai: Electronic toll transactions are expected to increase to about 50 per cent of the collections of national highways before the end of the year, doubling its share in the coming months.
National Electronic Toll Collections accounted for 25 per cent of total toll collections on highways at the end of Q1 2019 (January-March), and the number of transactions in Q2 2019 jumped 53.9 per cent to 80.1 million and the value of transactions grew 44.4 per cent to Rs 17.9 billion.
Worldline expects this electronic toll collection to account for 50 per cent of transactions by the end of the year. Tag issuance is set to grow further as the Highways Ministry has asked the NHAI to enable all toll lines across NH network to process FASTag before December as it plans to allow only tagged vehicles to use the toll lanes. Only one lane on each side will allow cash payment. This will further increase tag issuance.
FASTag issuance had jumped 118 per cent in the quarter, indicating increasing consumer acceptance. The issuance base stood at 5.22 million tags at the end of Q2. In 2018, the tag issuance base started at 0.9 million and jumped manifold to end the year with 3.8 million tags. In the last two quarters another 1.4 million tags were issued.
Apart from convenience, availability of tags across multiple touch points too has increased acceptance. Customers can purchase tags from service centres, fuel stations and e-commerce platforms, and get them activated via the banks/dealers or the MyFASTag mobile app.
"It is the perfect solution as it enhances efficiency in processing transactions, tackles the menace of toll evasions done on highways and reduces congestion around toll plazas, fuel consumption and air pollution," said Sunil Rongala, Vice President, Strategy, Innovation & Analytics of Worldline India.
In future, NETC can gain significant momentum by adding more use cases like parking, e-challan, payment for fuel charges etc. and be a single stop solution for all vehicle-related payments.
