ICICI Bank has now issued over 1 million FASTags, making it the first bank in the country to do so.
FASTag is the brand name given to the radio frequency identification device (RFID) tag, which enables automatic deduction of toll charges, without stopping at the toll plaza for a cash transaction. At present, there are 2.5 million such tags in circulation across the country, the bank said in a release on Wednesday.
“We are working closely with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, the National Highways Authority of India and Indian Highways Management Company Ltd to cover more highways under the ETC (electronic toll collection) programme,” Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, said, adding that it is also planning to collaborate with key e-commerce portals for increasing the availability of FASTags.
To further scale up operations, the lender has tied up with over 10,000 fleet, including truck owners and large state transport organisations. It is also reaching out directly to fleet operators at various transport hubs like Namakkal, Warangal, Gandhidham, Vapi, Delhi, Manesar, JNPT, Hubli and Kanpur to spread awareness on the usage of FASTags.
“The bank has also deployed 500 trained and dedicated personnel across the country to help sell fix and resolve the queries of customers,” ICICI Bank said, adding that it handles 210 toll booths on both state and national highways under the ETC programme.
The bank undertakes 11 million transactions of the 18 million transactions that are undertaken in a month across the industry through ETC.