ICICI to issue 4 lakh ETC tags by March 2017

August 10, 2016

ICICI Bank – the largest private sector lender of the country – aims to issue four lakh electronic toll collection tags by March 2017. The private sector lender is the first to launch and implement an inter-operable Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) platform on national highways. The bank is also targeting to record three million transactions by the end of the current financial year. The bank has made ‘Electronic Toll Collection’ live at 343 toll locations across major national highways of the country, which covers over 90 per cent of the tolled national highway network.

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “Currently, we have made this service live across 343 toll locations in the country, thus covering over 90% of the tolled national highway network. We are closely working with the Road Transport & Highways Ministry, NHAI (National Highway Authority of India) and IHMCL (Indian Highways Management Company Limited) to cover more highways under ETC in the near future.”

“ICICI Bank is delighted to be associated with the implementation of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) on national highways. We were the first bank in the country to launch this innovative service and have successfully set benchmarks that are now being leveraged to create national standards for inter-operability between all banks,” Ms Kochhar added. Overall, ICICI Bank has issued over 30,000 FASTags which are currently in use for electronic toll collection. The bank was the first to launch this service on the Mumbai – Vadodara corridor of NH8 in 2013.

FASTag is a simple to use, reloadable tag which enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets you pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction. FASTag is linked to a prepaid account from which the applicable toll amount is deducted. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and is affixed on the vehicle’s windscreen after the tag account is active. A vehicle with the ‘FASTag’ can use the dedicated lanes on either side of the toll plaza to avoid long queues in the cash lanes of the toll plazas.