UPSC Preparation: FASTag and RFID Technology - Everything You Need to Know

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) oversee the FASTag electronic toll collecting system. By using a tag that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, this technique helps drastically cut down on the amount of time spent in lengthy lines at toll plazas.

To address toll plaza concerns, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, announced on June 18 a FASTag-based annual pass for non-commercial private vehicles that costs Rs 3,000. This pass is good for 200 visits or a year, and it goes into effect on August 15.

In the past, both the preliminary and main exams of the UPSC have contained questions about IRNSS. As a result, let's examine the system to learn more about it.

RFID is a wireless tracking system that exchanges data via radio waves between tags and readers. Particularly for sectors like aviation, tags have a huge memory capacity and can hold encrypted data. RFID tags can communicate with a reader thanks to their integrated circuit and antenna. For the host computer system to analyze, the reader converts the radio wave messages into data.

RFID uses radio waves to transfer data from chips to readers, removing the requirement for a line of sight, in contrast to barcodes, which require optical readers and use printed lines for data entry on computers.

How Can I Pay?

Introduced in 2014, it became mandatory in 2021. The vehicle's windshield is covered with the FASTag sticker. It communicates with toll plaza scanners via RFID technology, automatically taking the toll money out of a wallet or associated account. You can use digital payment apps like Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe to send money to recharge your FASTag. To accomplish this, you can also go to the website of your bank.