Kolkata: Glitch takes ‘double toll’ on Setu traffic – Times of India

Kolkata News

HOWRAH: Trouble erupted at Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza on Saturday morning after motorists and truckers were charged twice. Several motorists, who paid toll to attendants at the booths, were told the FASTag auto collection system was not working. But they later found the amount was deducted from the FASTag account.
Vehicles crossing the Vidyasagar Setu toll gate have been facing this issue for the past couple of days, with operators insisting on manual payment, but the amount continued to get debited from the accounts.

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Immediate steps should be taken to rectify the technical snag. The authorities should also find ways to refund those who are being charged extra.

Ratan Dutta, who crossed the toll twice on Friday evening, said, “Those manning the toll said that the system was not functional and insisted on cash payment of Rs 10 each time. But I later found Rs 20 was deducted from my account. This is illegal and amounts to cheating,” he said.
A senior railway official whose lives in Howrah said he, too, had been paying manually and later found money had been deducted from his account on all the three days.
While the protests had been somewhat muted till now, it threatened to spiral out of control on Saturday with a scuffle breaking out between toll attendants and aggrieved drivers. Police had to intervene to bring the situation under control.
The HRBC authority last month introduced the FASTag system to ease the traffic flow. A state transport official said that there was a technical glitch that led to the problem and now they were planning to refund the money to motorists from whom toll had been collected twice.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/kolkata-glitch-takes-double-toll-on-setu-traffic/articleshow/91412242.cms