FASTags to play an expanded role beyond the government’s aim of electronic toll collections. Many start-ups are looking to take advantage of the nationwide FASTag infrastructure to ease payments in commercial centres such as cinemas and fuel outlets.

Besides, Goa-based start-up Numadic has been running fliers with Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd and Indian Oil Corp. Ltd to use FASTags for fuel payments. The pilot began last October and has received a lot of traction from consumers, as per reports.

Luke Sequeira, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Numadic says, “we are planning to expand to more petrol stations, fuel companies and banks. Real implementation will happen now as we move from proving the concept to scaling it across the country.”

Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), FASTags use a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip mounted on car windshields, which stores vehicle and payment information. When a car approaches a toll plaza or a fuel outlet with a RFID reader, the chip is activated and the transaction is completed automatically.

Amit Lakhotia, founder and CEO of Park+ says, “it has cut down queues significantly for parking as you don’t have to stop, collect a manual receipt, and then make payment.”

Lakhotia says, “the company is aiming to expand FASTag payments to 40 more malls and 1,500 government parking lots this year. Like Numadic, Park+ is also working on a pilot for fuel payments using these tags in the Delhi-NCR region.”

Ashutosh Sharma, vice president, and research director, Forrester Research, says, “having a single standardized way of making payments across a variety of services is a great win for the customers. They can certainly extend this architecture to include other services such as fuel stations, parking, and pretty much any use case that involves a vehicle.”