Paytm will become a mode of payment at 40 out of 350 toll booths on Indian highways, reports Economic Times. The report does not specify which highways this will be implemented at. We’ve written to the company for more details and will update this when we hear from them. The report says that users will be charged to their Paytm wallets when they pass toll plazas. In February this year, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had approached the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to set up inter-bank clearing to build electronic tolling for 350 toll plazas in India. This would help in curbing fuel usage, speed up freight and passenger queues and reduce congestion. Two months later, the NHAI launched electronic tolling at 300 toll plazas where FASTag tagged vehicles (pdf) would not need to stop to pay tolls. FASTag, which was introduced in 2014, is a prepaid RFID device tagged to the windscreen of the vehicle which can be used to pay toll fees across e-toll set ups. In July, Oxigen Wallet started allowing its customers to recharge their FASTag stickers on the Delhi-Noida-Delhi (DND) flyway tolls. And in June, the NHAI said it would open dedicated FASTag lanes at 48 different toll plazas on Delhi – Mumbai, Mumbai-Chennai Corridors. As of now, Mint reports that the e-toll collection system from the NPCI will be launched this month for toll payments but will be extended to other vehicle related payments like parking, service and fuel charges…
