Shri Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways and MSME launched the new website of his Ministry. The new website has a dashboard that gives data about highways construction, land acquisition, FASTags etc. It also gives the state wise, month wise data on registration of vehicles in the country.
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MoS, Road Transport & Highways, General (Retd) V K Singh,. Secretary Shri Sanjeev Ranjan, NHAI Chairman Shri N.N. Sinha and other senior officials of the Ministry were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Gadkari informed that his Ministry has initiated steps to implement the Motor Vehicles Act 2019. He said 63 clauses which do not require framing of new rules, have been sent to Law Ministry for vetting. Subject to clearance from Law Ministry, these clauses are likely to be implemented from 1st of next month. These clauses deal with penalties, licences, registration, National Transport Policy etc. Regarding the other clauses for which rules have to be framed, the Minister informed that steps for this have already been initiated by the Ministry, and rules will be notified as and when due processes are completed. The Minister expressed happiness that the Motor Vehicles Act 2019 has become a reality, and said this will go a long way in giving the country a safe and corruption free road transport system. He also said the National Transport Policy that will be brought in under the Act, will help to develop an efficient, multi modal transport system in the country.
Shri Gadkari also expressed hope that the MVA 2019 will help curb road accidents and bring down fatalities. He said that the Ministry is spending Rs 12,000 crore towards rectification of 786 accident black spots identified by NHAI. In addition, talks are on with World Bank and ADB for another programme worth Rs 14000 crore for rectification of black spots on national, state, district highways etc.
The Minister also announced that FASTags will become mandatory for all vehicles from December this year. As many as 52.59 lakh FASTags have been issued till date.
FASTags are being issued by 22 certified banks through various channels such as Point-of-Sale at NH toll plazas, selected bank branches, etc. These are also available on e-commerce platform. It is a ‘bank-neutral’ FASTag i.e. no bank is pre-assigned to the FASTag at the time of purchase by customer from a Point-of-Sale or Online and offers the flexibility to customer to link the FASTag with their existing bank account by using My FASTag Mobile app, currently available on Google Play Store.
