Hyderabad: In the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world is still reeling under its malevolent impact, going contact-less is the new mantra. Apart from offering an end-to-end contact-less boarding experience for safe travels, GMR Hyderabad International Airport has also scaled up its NETC (National Electronic Toll Collection) FASTag Car Parking in collaboration with NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) integrating 10 NETC FASTag Issuing banks and will go live with other issuer banks in the next few weeks. With this development, Hyderabad International Airport now offers India’s first and only fully contact-less airport car parking experience for passengers and visitors.
In line with the government of India’s mission to have ‘One Nation One Tag – NETC FASTag,’ and its signature programme of ‘Passenger Is Prime,’ GMR Hyderabad International Airport introduced India’s first-ever ‘NETC FASTag Car Park’ in collaboration with NPCI in November 2019. With the recent ramp up, the airport has added a high standard of safety with contact-less toll transactions during the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
Speaking on this development, Mr. Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GHIAL, said, “As part of our commitment to providing a safe airport experience during Covid-19 pandemic, we are happy to announce that now passengers and visitors can avail a fully contactless car parking experience thanks to the collaboration with NPCI and NETC, which has now made our car parking fully compatible with any NETC FASTag Issuing Banks in India. We have tested first with ICICI Bank and now opening up to all the balance issuers. With this customers holding any bank NETC FASTag could zip through the airport car parking with zero-contact transactions having full control over their safe travels. While, the traditional mode of transaction with digital payment over-the-counter option will also be available, however, for more safety and contact-less experience, one could avail the NETC FASTag option at the airport car parking.”
Ms. Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer, NPCI, said, “We are delighted to associate with GHIAL to launch the first-of-its-kind contactless parking. We believe, this service is set to make safe hassle free airport travel experience for customers thereby completely eradicating the need to deal with physical receipts. By venturing into the safe and contactless car park mechanism, customers would get rid of producing cash at the exit and long queue. We are confident that this collaboration will lay the foundation for empowering vehicle owners to go contactless and experience the innovative airport parking facility. In the COVID prevalent situation of current times, this will offer safety in making digital payments as well. This is a primary focus for us – #IndiaStaySafe #IndiaPaySafe”
The NETC FASTag solution is based on a simple to use, reloadable electronic RFID tag which enables automatic deduction of applicable parking charges, while one drives through the car Park without stopping for any cash transaction. This system was introduced at Hyderabad International Airport for ease of payments and reduces queuing at the entry and exit of the parking lot.
How the system works:
This automated system entails a customer buying the NETC FASTag, which is linked to a prepaid account. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and needs to be affixed on the vehicle’s windscreen after the tag account is active. The RFID Tag is mapped with NPCI by the issuer bank(s). The subscriber of this system can use the parking without any manual intervention, such as waiting for a parking receipt at the entry or making cash/credit card payment at the exit. There is no additional cost to customers with respect to the parking fee. One has to just purchase a onetime tag which does away with the wait time at entry and exit.
Dedicated NETC FASTag lanes are in place at entry. When a user arrives through this lane, the strategically placed RFID reader will capture the tag with the timestamp and store the details in the local data base. While exiting, the same will be reconciled and the chargeable parking fee is automatically deducted allowing the passengers to virtually zip through the parking lot in no time. Post completion of every transaction, user will receive SMS on the deducted amount.