Non-payment of toll charges to reflect on Vahan portal, app

NEW DELHI: Soon, evading toll charge payment for long after using a tolled highway stretch due to faulty or blacklisted FASTags won’t be possible. Such non-payment of toll charges will reflect on the Vahan portal and app, like in the case of traffic challan dues.

The NHAI has urged the road transport ministry to make changes in the Vahan system, a repository of registered vehicles, to recover unpaid toll from vehicles with no FASTag or faulty/blacklisted tags. It has also proposed to add a section — ‘unpaid user fee due’ — in the Vahan portal to display the due amount.

The Vahan portal would display the due amount and the vehicle’s photo for evidence when the owner logs in, the NHAI said.

As per a proposal, such vehicle owners would not be allowed to transfer registration or get NoC and fitness certificate without clearing the dues. Vehicle owners will have the option to pay the dues or raise objections to the notice within seven days.

The proposal has been forwarded to the ministry as the NHAI has started adopting a free-flow system of tolling on some stretches. This will be expanded before the full roll-out of a satellite-based tolling system.

In this system, vehicles are allowed to flow smoothly without the need for toll booths or barriers. It uses cameras, sensors and number plate recognition to automatically identify vehicles and charge toll.

The NHAI has proposed that when a vehicle without a FASTag or blacklisted one passes through a free-flow toll plaza, its control room will generate a notice and send it to the Vahan portal.

“At a later stage, more options like linking this to renewal of insurance can be explored to ensure that none can shortchange the system,” said an official.