NEW DELHI: Those who have not yet procured their FASTags, have got some relief for the next one month. The highways ministry on Saturday asked NHAI to take a call on the number of toll lanes where cash payment will be accepted till January 15 and their number shouldn’t be more than one-fourth of the total toll collection counters.Earlier, the ministry had announced that vehicles without tags won’t be allowed to enter the FASTag lanes and there will be only one lane left on each side for accepting cash payment. But considering issues faced by commuters, the ministry relaxed the norm and said at least 75% toll lanes at toll plazas on national highways must have electronic toll collection. TOI on July 20 had first reported that the government can’t deny accepting cash a mode of payment of toll charge by vehicle users and that it would have to allow this on one or two lanes.The government had earlier said that no vehicle will be allowed to pass through any toll plaza without a FASTag from December 1. Later it had said that there will be one hybrid lane at every toll plaza to facilitate over dimensional or over-sized vehicles where FASTag and cash payment will be accepted. The plan was to eventually phase this out as well.However, though the highways ministry’s direction is silent on whether vehicles without FASTags entering tag lanes would have to pay double of toll charge, NHAI has suggested that they should be allowed to start charging amount after 45 days from December 15. NHAI has informed the ministry they would be in a position to convert all toll lanes except one as dedicated ‘FASTag lanes’.The ministry has said the regional officers of NHAI will be authorised to decide how many lanes need to be earmarked as hybrid lanes to take cash and transact FASTags after assessing the traffic pile up at high volume plazas. Till Saturday, the NHAI and other agencies had sold over 96 lakh FASTags across India.