More FASTag glitches, motorists moan about double deductions

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 20

Blame it on technical glitch or something else, but people have been complaining about double toll deduction by toll plazas.

Naveen Singh, a resident of the Surya Nagar locality here, has complained that Rs 70 was deducted from his prepaid wallet for FASTag around midnight when his car was parked at his residence in Hisar on December 17.

Naveen said that travelling back from Chandigarh on Tuesday, he paid a toll of Rs 70 at Narwana (Jind) at 2.34 pm and reached Hisar around 7 pm. The next day, he saw a text message about the deduction of another Rs 70 but it did not mention the name of the toll plaza. The prepaid balance also indicated deduction.

He said he got in touch with the customer care number 1033 (complaint number 1043599) and was assured that the extra charge would be credited to his wallet.

“Two days have gone by but the money hasn’t been credited in my account,” he said, adding that he had decided to surrender the FASTag and in future would use the cash lane.

Another Hisar resident Sanjeev Bhatia said the toll could not be deducted from his FASTag account at the Mayyar (Delhi road) toll on December 15 so he took the cash lane and paid the money. “But within four minutes of crossing, the toll was deducted from my account,” he said, adding that he hasn’t been able to get in touch with the customer care executive despite repeated attempts.

NHAI official at Hisar Vipin Mangla said FASTag deduction was a centralised system and there were “very rare” chances of errors like unauthorised deduction. “There may be one such error in 1,000 cases. There is also a redressal system,” he said, adding that FASTag system will deduct the charge if an operational fastag sticker comes in the range at any toll plaza even if someone is carrying it in their pocket. Naresh Kumar, manager at Mayyar toll, said they had got some complaints but they also redressed them immediately.