FASTag rules: The road transport and highways ministry on Saturday has said that use of FASTag will be mandatory in all four-wheelers from 1 January 2021, as a part of its attempt to drive faster adoption of the electronic toll collection.

“As per Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, since 2017 the FASTag had been made mandatory for all registration of new four-wheeled vehicles and is being supplied by the vehicle manufacturer or their dealers. It has further been mandated that the renewal of fitness certificate will be done only after the fitment of FASTag for the transport vehicles,” an official statement said.

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FASTag has become mandatory for M and N class four-wheelers sold before December 1, 2017. For this, the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 were amended. The ministry issued a notification regarding this on November 6.

It has also been made mandatory through an amendment in Form 51 to have a valid FASTag while taking new third party insurance. This will include the details of the FASTag ID. This will come into force with effect from April 1, 2021.

This notification will be a major step towards ensuring 100 percent payment of duty on toll plazas only electronically and vehicles will be able to pass through the plazas without any interruption. This will prevent vehicles from waiting at the plazas and will save fuel.

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The transport ministry has also made the use of FASTag mandatory for availing a new third-party vehicle insurance from 1 April, 2021.

FASTag is an electronic toll collection device fixed on the windshield of a vehicle to enable drivers zip through toll plazas without having to stop. The use of FASTag was made compulsory earlier this year at all national highway toll plazas to reduce cash handling and decongest national highways.

Since then, the government has been trying to encourage the use of the e-toll collection and disincentivize the use of cash.

“Through these orders, it would be a step for ensuring that the payment of fees be 100% at toll plazas through the electronic means only and that the vehicles pass seamlessly through the fee plazas. There would be no waiting time at the plazas and would save fuel,” the statement said.

Mean-while, India’s COVID-19 caseload went past 86 lakh on Wednesday, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 80.13 lakh, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.79 percent, according to the Union Health Ministry’s data.

With 44,281 more people testing positive for coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, the infection tally mounted to 86,36, 011, while the death count rose to 1,27,571 after 512 new fatalities were reported, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of active cases dropped below five lakh. At present, there are 4,94,657 active cases in the country which comprise 5.73 percent of the total caseload, the data stated.

The total recoveries have surged to 80,13,783, pushing the national recovery rate to 92.79 percent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.48 percent