.& STRAT TTT STAT STAR TOT errno: ovsnzsorenctarnn (ase sites ote asta eater) BRT) Fax :91-11-25003507 / 25009514 Be National Highways Authority of India (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) ‘A-S wa 6, daet-10, ane, aE Reet=110075 G6, Secor 10, Dwar, New Dahl 110078 NHAI/13013/2016-17 (CO)/Hybrid ere} luseoy Date: 11.12.2019 To, ‘M/s Prakash Asphaltings & Toll Highways (I) Ltd. 76, Mall Road, MHOW-453 441 Indore (M.P.) Email:path@[Link] Sub: Expected Issues in mandating ETC from 1“ Dec 2019 and suggestions -reg, Sir, Please refer to your letter no. PATH/NHAI/19-20/2044 dated 20.11.2019 regarding expected Issues in mandating ETC from 1* Dec 2019 and suggestions, 2. The response of NHAI is enclosed at Annexure 1. Yours faithfully General Manager (CO) Copy for information and necessary action to: CGM (CO) Project Directors/Regional Officers, NHAI IHMCL NPCL aepeAnnexure - 1 [ Observation raised by PATH 1. Sudden traffic jams for vehicles paying cash: we | have not seen any pick up in selling of FASTag from our toll plazas and also receive feedback from other locations. In our fare estimate, we expect that from 41-Dec-2019 onwards the ETC penetration will jump up. to about 60% from current 25%. So if we block all lanes for ETC and keep only 1 lane for Cash, there will be huge traffic jams on toll plazas. We have started pilot testing on 4 of our toll plazas where we have blocked all but 1 lane for cash transactions and we have observed that there are huge traffic pile up up to 2 KM and it results in confrontation on plaza. Eventually we are forced to, open the lanes to clear the traffic. Reply by NHAI All_vehicles are encouraged to adopt FaSTag facility to avoid queue in cash paying lane. Availability of FASTag is being increased so that maximum number of vehicles which are passing frequently through toll plaza shall have FASTag. Non FaSTag vehicles shall have to accommodate in cash lane. Marshals are being engaged by the PIUs to maintain the lane discipline. Where Possible ETC system can be placed ahead such that non FASTag vehicle can be diverted to other lane. 2. Overloaded penalty charging mechanism not available in ETC: The vehicles carrying goods more than allowed limit, ‘are supposed to pay overload fee but, as of now ETC system has not have enabled the facility to charge overload fee. The commercial vehicle are misusing the ETC facility, to avoid paying the overload fee and are also getting the discount. The concessionaire has to stop the ETC vehicle and charge the overload fee through cash transaction. The ETC system already has a feature to send overload information in the transaction with “Overload Flag” set to the number in multiples of the base fare, to determine the overload fee. We can do | a trail run on one of our toll plazas. It would be prudent to instruct the acquiring banks to enable the overload charging mechanism in the ETC tem. Te is endeavor that all exemptions are to be routed through FASTag and exempted users are being issued such FASTag. However, vehicles/persons that have been exempted from payment of user fees but have not been affixed with functional exempted FASTag shall continue to reap the benefit of non-payment of user fees upon production of valid ID card. The suggestion is noted for improvement. further [Action to be taken by IMCL] 3. Uncontrolled frauds in Tag Issuance: Currently, there are thousands of Tags which are ‘issued to wrong vehicles. For example, Car category tags are issued to Multi Axle Trucks, We have continuously raised such issues with IHMCL and NPCI but there has been no control on issuance of such fraudulent tags. This results in revenue loss for concessionaires, every time such vehicles crosses from toll plaza. It also increases out efforts for auditing such transactions ‘and providing images as proof to the banks to recover ‘our money. Since we are expecting multi fold increases in ETC transactions, such frauds and resulting revenue losses will also increase for us. The tag issuance shall be strictly controlled and ‘issuers should penalized heavily so that they issue tags to correct vehicles. The suggestion further improvement. is noted for [Action to be taken by IHMCL]Moreover, the entire ETC program was based on premise that each vehicle shall be uniquely identified by the RFID tag. This wrong tag issuance has compromised the sanctity of entire program where thousands of vehicles have been fssued wrong tags. This is of utmost importance to ensure correct tag issuance for success and sustainability of this ETC program. The Tag issuance can be entrusted to Toll operators with reasonable incentives. The toll operators will ensure that tags are issued to correct vehicle because wrong tag issuance results in losses for toll operators themselves. 4. Size and number of tags in Blacklist: Since there are wrong tag issuance in system, we have seen a single vehicle has been issued more than 1 tag, either due to correcting the wrong tag, replacing the damaged tag or any other such reason. Because of this multiple tag issuance, the size of Blacklist has increased in such huge proportion that it, has become unmanageable. We have to update this BL in each toll lane every 10 minutes which becomes difficult for system to update and even banks to provide proper updated. ‘As a matter of fact, out of total 70 Lakh Tags issued till date, more than 40 lakh ({.£. about 56%) tags are in blacklist and its only going to increase exponential The suggestion is noted for further improvement. [Action to be taken by IHMCL] 5. Customers not willing to buy FASTags: ‘As of now, lot of local road users have not availed FASTag, though we are forcing all local users to buy FASTag for any monthly passes. Also, Local vehicles which are not registered or are registered in wrong name and address are also not buying FASTag due to need to KYC documents. Moreover, even the government vehicle who are except paying toll, such as Police vehicle, Local ‘Administration, Ambulances, Fire Trucks, Local MLA etc, have not procured the FASTag. It would be prudent to ensure that all exempt vehicles are issued FASTag before1-Dec-2019. The central authorities shall issue instructions to all Local Govt departments and Local bodies such as Police, | Hospitals, etc, to procure FASTags before 1-Dec-2019. 6. Wrong installation of Tags and Damaged Tags: We have seen lot of FASTags being installed on extreme right/ left comers of windshield, which makes it difficult to read the Tag by lane systems. ‘Actually the Tags should be installed in the top center, of windshield, Also, we have seen various Vehicle continue to carry damaged tags and arguing with plaza staff that their tag account has balance. Even though the Tag account has balance, since the Tag is damaged, the system cannot read it. Then the user complains on 1033 and plaza is forced to exempt the vehicle and did not get any revenue for such vehicles. The people ‘The matter is being pursued with these departments. [Action to be taken by NHAI/NPCI/IHMCL] The suggestion is noted for further improvement. [Action to be taken by IHMCL/Issuers Banks]sitting on 1033 cannot verify that the Tag is damaged. All vehicle owners shall be instructed to ensure that their tag 1s installed properly and its not damaged. | More importantly, the tag issuing agencies shall be property. 7. Charge back and reconciliation: Earlier, at the start of ETC program, IMCL had set up, the duration of 15 days for raising charge back for any wrong debit from customer account. Later, NPCI has increased the charge back duration to charge back for any transaction, which is set at a maximum of 3 days, without any guarantee of acceptance of transaction. Because of this huge duration of 6 months, the charge back can be raised and amount will be debited from our settlement even after 6 months. For example, a transaction of INR 250/- completed on 1-jan-2019, ‘can be debited from our settlement of 1-May-2019, Basically, the toll operators get only 3 days to send a transaction to bank, but eh bank can request a charge back for any transaction up to 180 days after the transaction. Due to this, its practically impossible for cconcessionaires to reconcile the actual revenue. 8. Loop hole in issuance of IHMCL Tags causing revenue loss: | When an IHMCL tag is issue to a road user, we simply capture his vehicle details in the FASTag app and paste the tag on vehicle wind screen. The Tag is not, linked to any bank/ wallet as of now. The Tag is already encoded with an EPC id, which is a valid EPC. id and is not included in Blacklist. | When the vehicle with this Tag crosses the toll lane, | the tag will be accepted and barrier will open and | transaction for this tag will be sent to Acquiring bank. | Since this Tag is not linked to any bank/ wallet account the Acquiring bank and NPCI cannot recover the money from the Tag user, hence they reject this, transaction, hence the concessionaire does not receive the amount of transaction even though the Vehicle has crossed the toll plaza. also issuing 100s of these NHAI FASTag across India every day, which all may result in such cases where the tag is not linked to any bank account and not in blacklist, hence the vehicles are going free from the toll plaza and concessionaire is losing revenue. To avoid such issues, we would suggest to add all IHMCL Tags in Blacklist until they are linked to a bank account and pay the security deposit. Once they are linked to a bank account and pay the security deposit, then the Tag should be removed from the | Blacklist. l strictly instructed that they should install the tags | 180 days, i.e, the customers or banks can raise a | Please also note that IHMCL’s selected vendors are | The suggestion is noted for improvement. further [Action to be taken by IHMCL/NPCI] The suggestion ie noted for further improvement. [Action to be taken by IHMCL]