How FASTag works?

FASTag is an electronic toll collection system operated by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). FASTag is a passive device and it works on the principle of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology which enables automatic deduction of the toll fee directly from the prepaid or savings account linked to it. FASTag is also vehicle specific and once it is affixed to a vehicle, it cannot be transferred to another vehicle.

Learn how this FASTag system works.

Step 1

Whenever a vehicle affixed with FASTag pass through the ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) lane of the toll plaza, the RFID reader fixed at the lane will capture the FASTag details like (Tag ID, Vehicle Class, TID, etc.) and send it for processing to the acquiring bank.

Step 2

The acquiring bank will send a request to the NETC (National Electronic Toll Collection) server through API to validate and authenticate the tag.

Step 3

After the tag validation, NETC server will respond with details like tag status, vehicle class, VRN and other such details. If the tag id is not present in NETC database, it will respond like "the tag id is not registered".

Step 4

If the tag is succesfully validated by NETC, then the acquirer host will calculate the appropriate toll fare and initiate a debit request to NETC system and NETC system will send the debit request to the issuer bank for debiting the account of the customer.

Step 5

The issuer bank will debit the linked tag holder account and send the debit response alert to the NETC system. Also the issuer bank will send an SMS alert to the tag holder.

Step 6

Atlast the acquirer host will notify to respective toll plaza and allow the vehicle to pass through. The entire process will takeplace within milli seconds.