With the implementation of FASTag, buses run by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) across the state have encountered a fresh set of problems — poor connectivity and delayed scanning — leading to delays, claimed officials. Buses plying on Mumbai-Kolhapur and Mumbai-Pune routes have increased travel time by about an hour, with buses taking more than 10 minutes at each toll plaza. Of the total fleet of 18,500 buses, about 1,200 have been equipped with Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFID) since March 2018. These buses then switched to FASTag in December to allow them to pass through dedicated FASTag lanes across national highways. However, according to MSRTC officials, these buses, which would otherwise pass smoothly with RFID tags, now end up waiting about 10 minutes at each toll plaza with the scanners unable to read tags. “The travel time on our Mumbai-Kolhapur and Mumbai-Pune routes have gone up by at least an hour. There are six tolls that a bus has to cross between Mumbai and Kolhapur. At each of these tolls, buses wait anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes,” an official said. The officials added that the buses end up waiting for about an hour at Khalapur toll especially on weekends. “The scanners put up at the Khalapur toll take much longer to scan the tags and with increased number of vehicles with FASTag, these queues go up to 2.5-km long,” said the official. In the interiors of Maharashtra, meanwhile, poor connectivity at toll plazas delay the reading of tags. “Our drivers are then asked to pass through the hybrid lanes by paying the toll in cash but it is not how we work and our drivers don’t have the money to pay in cash,” the official said. About 100 complaints are received every day from commuters who are delayed, officials added.
