The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)’s national electronic toll collection (NETC) program now accounts for 25% value of the total toll collected. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Indian Highways Management Company (IHMCL) had engaged NPCI to create an interoperable, scalable solution to meet the electronic tolling requirements of the Indian market and accordingly NPCI had launched the NETC program in December 2016. NETC encompasses a common set of processes, business rules and technical specifications which enable a customer to use a FASTag that is affixed on the windscreen of the vehicle as payment mode on any of the toll plazas irrespective of who has acquired the toll plaza. FASTag is a RFID passive tag which permits the customer to drive through toll plazas, without stopping for any toll payments. The toll fare is directly deducted from the linked account of the customer. FASTag is also vehicle specific and once it is affixed to a vehicle, it cannot be transferred to another vehicle. Praveena Rai, COO, NPCI, said the NETC program has gained tremendous traction in the last one year. From an average daily transaction of 30,000 in January 2017, NPCI is currently processing 8.62 lakh transactions daily, she said adding this can be easily scaled up further, if state and city toll plazas start accepting FASTag for toll payments.
